TENNIS – TOP seed Jannik Sinner ensured Novak Djokovic will be absent from a Wimbledon men’s singles final for the first time in eight years after handing the Serbian great a brutal Centre Court battering yesterday.
Italian Sinner lost both his previous Wimbledon duels with Djokovic but turned the tables in emphatic fashion as his power and precision proved too much for the seven-time champion who, at 38, looked every bit his age in a humbling 6-3 6-3 6-4 loss.
In his first Wimbledon final, the 23-year-old Sinner will face Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in a tantalising re-match of their recent French Open humdinger which the Italian lost after battling for more than five hours, squandering three championship points.
Djokovic, who arrived in London bidding to equal Roger Federer’s men’s record eight Wimbledon titles and claim an unprecedented 25th major title, had not lost an All England Club semi-final since the Swiss got the better of him in 2012.
But his 52nd Grand Slam semi-final proved a bridge too far as Sinner repeated his victory at the same stage of Roland Garros to confirm that a new order has now firmly established itself at the top of men’s tennis.
Djokovic has often looked superhuman on Wimbledon’s most historic stage, but yesterday Father Time chased him down as he looked defenceless against a sublime Sinner who dropped only six points on serve in the first two sets.
He briefly stemmed the tide in the third set to move 3-0 ahead but it proved an illusion as Sinner, bidding to add the Wimbledon title to his two Australian and one US Open crowns, nipped any hope of a famous comeback in the bud.
Earlier, twice defending champion Alcaraz tamed the towering Taylor Fritz to reach his third straight Wimbledon final, rediscovering his A-game when it mattered most to battle past the American in a 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6(6) victory.
Eyeing a sixth Grand Slam title, the Spaniard was too strong for the metronomically consistent Fritz, whose biggest weapons were still not damaging enough to unsettle the second seed under a fiery sun on Centre Court.
Alcaraz, who last tasted defeat at the Barcelona Open in April, has now won a remarkable 24 matches in a row.
He certainly entertained a Centre Court crowd who lapped up a contest that pitted two hardened competitors with such contrasting styles against each other.
Fritz, who was bidding to become the first American man to reach the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick in 2009, was so languid and smooth, emotionally and physically consistent from one point to the next.
Alcaraz, on the other hand, was a fidgeting bundle of energy, exploding into life at key moments, ripping top-spin forehands that drew gasps of admiration.