After several close calls, Jannik Sinner emerged victorious last year, winning the first Wimbledon title of his career. He needed to defeat some top-notch opponents on his way to victory.
This year is no exception. If Sinner wants to be crowned Wimbledon champion again, his path will be even tougher. Following Tuesday’s win, top-seeded Sinner will face seventh-seeded Novak Djokovic in Friday’s semifinals.
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On Tuesday, Djokovic defeated third-seeded Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (10-4) in a grueling quarterfinal match that lasted five minutes and 15 seconds, making it the longest match of the tournament and the longest of Auger-Aliassime’s career. This was the longest quarterfinal match in Wimbledon history.
Djokovic led 2-1 in the fourth set and had a chance to get an early break to take a 2-0 lead and end the match. However, Auger-Aliassime rallied to win three in a row and ultimately secure the set in a tiebreak to take a deciding fifth set.
In the fifth set, neither player allowed a service game and the match went to a 6-6 tiebreak, with the first player to score 10 points and lead by 2 points winning the match. Djokovic took the lead on Auger-Aliassime’s serve and rallied 19 shots to take a 5-3 lead. He extended his lead to 7-3 with his own serve and won the tie-break 10-4.
Djokovic: One of the ‘best matches’ of his Wimbledon career
At the end of the match, the seven-time Wimbledon champion called the match “one of the best matches I’ve been a part of on this court in my career.”
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He was asked in an on-court interview how he pulled off yet another amazing victory in his legendary career.
“You have to have a racket and a lot of heart to manage the nerves and extreme tension you feel in this kind of match,” Djokovic said. “Towards the end, it’s really a game that anyone can play.”
“What can I say? Moments like this are why I still play tennis.”
In contrast, Sinner advanced to the semifinals with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over unseeded Jan-Lennard Struff earlier Tuesday. Both players will take two days off from the game to rest and prepare for Friday’s semifinal match.
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The 24-year-old Sinner will go into the match with an advantage over the 39-year-old Djokovic, who just won the longest match of his career.
“I wish it was the final,” Djokovic joked after the match. “So I don’t have to worry about how my body will feel tomorrow.
“But I’m happy. I’m happy to win. … I still have to recover. I’m still in the tournament and in a few days I’ll have the best player in the world.”
While Sinner has youth and rest on his side, Djokovic will enter Friday’s match with a tremendous advantage in experience. Friday’s match will be his eighth straight Wimbledon semifinal appearance and the 15th of his career. This will also be his 55th Grand Slam semi-final appearance.
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Rematch from last year’s semifinals
The matchup should be familiar to Sinner, as the two met in the Wimbledon semifinals last year. Sinner had a dominant performance in that match, defeating Djokovic in straight sets (6-3, 6-3, 6-4).
At the time, this was Sinner’s fifth straight victory over Djokovic. Sinner, who started his career 1-4 against the Serbian, has since dominated Djokovic, winning 5-1.
However, this one loss is notable because it was the last time the two faced each other. At the 2026 Australian Open, Djokovic defeated Sinner to reach the final. Djokovic ultimately lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final, but Alcaraz was forced to miss Wimbledon due to an elbow injury.
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Djokovic will be the toughest challenge Sinner has faced to date at Wimbledon in 2026. Sinner has yet to play another top-10 seed. That’s not unusual in the early stages of a Grand Slam. Sinner had just one more chance to face a top-10 seed before the semifinals, but that match never materialized as No. 8 Daniil Medvedev was upset by Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round.
Other than a rough first-round match in which Sinner needed five sets to dispatch Miomir Kecmanovic, the Italian hasn’t had much trouble at Wimbledon. He has defeated all of his other opponents in straight sets, but multiple players, including Struff, have been forced to win in tiebreaks during the match.
With Alcaraz withdrawing from Wimbledon in 2026, the door is open for Sinner to play in back-to-back Grand Slams. But for that to become a reality, Sinner must defeat Djokovic in the semifinals. Sinner has proven adept at fending off Djokovic in previous head-to-head matches, but this will be the men’s No. 1’s toughest challenge yet in the tournament.
