Original title: Xiaode reaches Australian Open final for 10th time in 27 consecutive wins (theme)
Competing with Tsitsipas for world number one (subtitle)
beijing nightLi Yuanfei
Djokovic, who has won all nine of his previous Australian Open men’s singles semi-finals, defeated world number 35 American Tommy Paul 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 last night Beijing time, carry out the match against Australia. singles winning streak of 27 matches, surpassing Andre Agassi and becoming the holder of the longest Australian Open men’s singles winning streak in the Open era. He will be hitting his tenth Australian Open men’s singles title tomorrow. This championship has great practical significance for him and his opponent, No. 3 seed Sisipas, and is a battle for the two “thrones”.
In yesterday’s semi-final with Tommy Paul, maybe because of the first clash, Djokovic made a lot of mistakes in the first game of probing: high pressure off the net, forehand off the net, and a double fault to send a break point. During the first set, Djokovic bent down several times to touch his bandaged left thigh. This is because he strained his hamstring in the match in Adelaide before the Australian Open, which has become an ongoing bane for him at this year’s Australian Open. Compared to Djokovic, Paul’s problem most of the time in the whole match is that he does not have the ability to score points in the first serve, and the bottom line stalemate and front line fighting skills cannot take advantage of chances . The 25-year-old American said after the match: “He didn’t give me any chance to execute my game plan.” And Djokovic said, “In the first set, our two legs were very heavy. Fortunately, at the end of the first set, I stopped my nervousness, which was the key to the whole match, after that, I could to play habits more quietly.”
After winning, Djokovic will face No. 3 seed and Greek star Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final. The latter defeated No. 18 seed and Russian player Khachanov 3-1 in another men’s singles semi-final that ended yesterday and reached the final. This is also the second time in his career that he has reached the men’s singles final of a Grand Slam. Djokovic was Sisipas’ opponent in the last Grand Slam men’s singles final as well. In the 2021 French Open final, Sisipas had a huge 2-0 advantage in the set, and was reversed and won by Djokovic in 3 consecutive sets.
For Djokovic, if he can win the championship in the final, he will tie current leader Nadal with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. On top of a singles title, add another. For Sisipas, if he wins the championship, this will be his first Grand Slam singles title. However, this championship has another meaning for both sides. That is, to be able to become “Number 1 in the world” when the next world ranking is released.
“I like the number, it’s ‘1’,” said Tsitsipas, whose previous career high was No. 3. As for Djokovic, who has sat on the throne of “World No. 1” for 373 weeks, the last time he was ranked No. 1 in the world was last June. After the hard hit of 2022, this Australian Open men’s singles title is also of great significance for Djokovic’s career. Djokovic said: “Winning a Grand Slam and becoming number one in the world should be two peaks that professional tennis players can climb.”
