(Wimbledon) Novak Djokovic, who can equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles, qualified for his twelfth Wimbledon semi-final on Tuesday by beating Russia’s Andrey Rublev (7th in the world) 4-6, 6 -1, 6-4, 6-3.
The 36-year-old Serb will face the Italian Jannik Sinner (8th) on Friday for a place in the final. He also has his sights set on the record of eight titles on the London turf held by Roger Federer for men, one length from the absolute record of Martina Navratilova (9).
Italy’s Jannik Sinner, ranked 8th in the world, qualified for his first Grand Slam semi-final by beating Russia’s Roman Safiullin (92nd) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at the Wimbledon tournament.
Quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the United States Open in 2022, Sinner has finally passed this milestone.
He becomes, for the time being, at 22, the youngest semi-finalist on the London lawn since 2007 and a certain Novak Djokovic whom he could find in half if the world number 2 beats the Russian Andrey Rublev.
But he will not remain so for long: the winner of the quarter between Carlos Alcaraz (N.1 in the world) and Holger Rune (N.6), both 20 years old, will become one in his place.
“I’ll stay young and happy anyway so at least let me enjoy it today,” he joked right after the game.
“It means a lot to me because we’ve put in a lot of work, a lot, a lot of hours, including off the court, a lot of sacrifice to get to this point,” he commented more seriously.
The Italian has in any case shown a lot of maturity against Safiullin, one of the surprises of this edition since he had only one victory in the main draw in three tournaments on this surface before Wimbledon.
Sinner, extremely solid on his commitment, mastered the first set well where he broke at 4-4 to pocket it on his serve.
He also ideally started the second set coming off at 3-1, but with first serve percentage dropping to 48%, he lost the next 5 games to find himself one set all.
“When I lost the second set, all I had to do was win the next two,” he joked after the match.
“No, seriously, it was obviously difficult. I faltered a bit mentally, it’s an area that we work a lot on and I’m obviously very happy with the way I reacted on the last two races, “he added.
Again dominating on his serve – he conceded only one break point in the third and fourth sets – he used his greatest variety of shots to gain the upper hand over Safiullin who, although very combative, no longer made the weight.