ATP Tour

Djokovic: ‘I want to thank all the doubters’

Discount Novak Djokovic at your peril.

Just when Jannik Sinner looked set to book a fourth consecutive Grand Slam final with Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open, the ageless Serbian produced a comeback for the ages to earn the chance to play for a 25th Grand Slam crown.

“I never stopped believing in myself,” said the 10-time Australian Open champion, who will play Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s final at Melbourne Park. “There's a lot of people that doubt me. A lot of experts wanted to retire me or have retired me many times the last couple of years.

“I want to thank them all, because they gave me strength. They gave me motivation to prove them wrong, which I have tonight. For me, it's not a surprise, to be honest.”

Djokovic rallied from two-sets-to-one down to snap a five-match losing streak against two-time defending champion Sinner, winning 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the four-hour and nine-minute thriller that finished at 1:30 a.m.

Djokovic, who said he will not practise Saturday, made the most of his good fortune to reach the semi-finals. In the fourth round he received a walkover from his Miami Open final conqueror Jakub Mensik; in the quarter-finals he trailed Lorenzo Musetti by two sets before the Italian retired with a right leg injury.

But against Sinner, an opponent 14 years his junior, Djokovic’s resilience, conviction and courage underpinned his deserving victory, in which he saved 16 of 18 break points, including all eight in the final set.

“I rate it as the best [win] of the last couple of years,” Djokovic said. “For sure, one of the best performances in the last decade or so…

“I was lucky that obviously Lorenzo got hurt and retired that match. Two days later, obviously different opponent. I knew exactly what to expect and had great clarity and strategy and game plan and what needs to be executed.

“One thing is to imagine how you want to play, and the other thing is to deliver it and execute it on the court against Sinner, that we all know is playing an extremely high level.

“I'm just thrilled to be able to experience something like this tonight.”

The victory was Djokovic’s first five-set match since Roland Garros in 2024, when he survived against Francisco Cerundolo.

Djokovic has not lifted a major trophy since the US Open in 2023, watching Alcaraz and Sinner split the eight majors during the past two years.

On Sunday, as Djokovic attempts to become the oldest Australian Open champion, 22-year-old Alcaraz seeks to become the youngest men’s player to complete the career Grand Slam.

Djokovic leads Alcaraz 5-4 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, winning three of their four hard-court meetings. But when Alcaraz broke through for his lone hard-court win in the 2025 US Open semi-finals, Djokovic candidly expressed doubts about his ability to topple the Spaniard and Sinner over five sets at the majors. He’ll now have the chance to prove himself wrong in back-to-back matches in what would be one of the most remarkable feats in his unparalleled career.

“History is on the line for both of us every time we play,” said Djokovic, who has spent a record 424 weeks at No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings during his career… My preparation is as it should be, and I won against him last year here [in the quarter-finals], also in a grueling match. Let's see. Let's see how fresh are we both able to be.

“He also had a big match, but he has 15, 16 years on me. You know, biologically I think it's going to be a bit easier for him to recover.

“I'm just trying to enjoy the moment that I'm experiencing tonight. I'll think about finals later, but for me, this is win that almost equals winning a Grand Slam.”