In the early afternoon of today, when it will be 1.30pm in England and 2.30pm in Italy, Jannik Sinner, the only Italian tennis player in the top ten positions in the world rankings, will play the Wimbledon semifinal against the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who English has been the holder since 2018.
In Italy the match will be broadcast exclusively by Sky on channels 201 and 203 or streamed online via Sky Go and Now. Whoever wins qualifies for the final on Sunday afternoon, where he will meet the winner of the semifinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev, scheduled for late afternoon today.
Sinner against Djokovic is the semifinal between one of the most promising tennis players of the new generation and a champion who is already in the history of this sport. At 36 and after winning Roland Garros in June, Djokovic became the tennis player with the most victories (23) in Grand Slam tournaments, i.e. the four most important. He thus beat Rafael Nadal (22) by one victory, while Roger Federer (20), the other member of this trio that marked the last twenty years of world tennis, had already been surpassed.
The first semifinal of Wimbledon is therefore another important confrontation between two different and distant generations of tennis players. Up until now, when it came to winning, it was always the experienced champions and never the young. In Djokovic’s case, if he were to win this Wimbledon again he would equal Roger Federer’s record of eight wins. On the center court of Wimbledon, the one where all the main matches are played, the Serbian hasn’t lost for ten years and 33 consecutive matches.
At 21, Sinner has just become the third Italian to qualify for the semifinals of the English tournament after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960 and Matteo Berrettini in 2021. None of these have ever managed to win. For Sinner it will also be the first semifinal in a Grand Slam tournament, another reason why Djokovic is the great favourite.
If for Sinner playing these matches is still a novelty, for Djokovic it is a practice: today will be his 46th semifinal of a Grand Slam tournament and the twelfth at Wimbledon. For today’s two semifinalists it will be the third direct confrontation in their career: Djokovic has always won, first in 2021 at the Masters 1000 in Montecarlo and then in the quarterfinals of the last edition of Wimbledon, where he won by recovering from two sets behind. Compared to last year, Sinner said at the press conference that he could at least say that he knew his opponent better.
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2023-07-14 07:31:24
#Sinner #Djokovic #Wimbledon #semifinal
