Novak Djokovic is on a mission to win the 22nd Grand Slam of his incredible career. Only two challenges separate him from his 10th Australian Open title. In the semifinals he will face one of the surprises of the tournament, the American Tommy Paul, who at the starting line was surely not one of the candidates to go that far.
The final, instead, will come out between the winner of the challenge between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov. The Serbian star’s numbers are impressive. In reaching his 10th semi-final in the land of the kangaroos, the Belgrade native has encountered very few obstacles so far and his performance has not stopped increasing.
Only the Frenchman Enzo Couacaud managed to snatch a set from him. Grigor Dimitrov, the best classified, and Andrey Rublev were left out. It was a disarming show of force in the later rounds for Novak, who appears to have finally overcome his hamstring issues, which had alarmed millions of fans in the early stages of the tournament.
As we said, this is Djokovic’s tenth appearance in the Melbourne semifinals, with nine wins. At 35, he is the only tennis player in history to have triumphed in all four Slams (11 at Roland Garros, 11 at Wimbledon, 12 at the US Open).
Some incredible statistics, which attest, if necessary, to the continuity that Nole has managed to have in the last 16 years of his career. At Roland Garros in 2007, the Balkan champion reached his first major semifinal, but lost to the King of clay, Rafael Nadal, in three close sets.
Nole will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final
Novak Djokovic will face third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final on Sunday. «Yeah, I mean, it’s not an ideal situation or circumstances when you have to deal with all these other external factors that aren’t really necessary during such a big event,» Djokovic said.
«But it’s been a part of my life. Unfortunately, the last few years even more. I’m just trying to evolve from that. I’m trying to become more resilient, stronger. Of course, I have a team of people around me, members of my family .who stay with me in the same accommodation or spend a whole day with me.
I have an agreement with them that they give me this type of protection,” he said. “I don’t want to hear things from what was written in this article or that news or that news. I want to keep my mind as sane or serene as possible to conserve the vital energy that I need for the court,” he added.
