SYDNEY, January 26. /TASS/. Italy’s Jannik Sinner has advanced to the final of this year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the 2024 Australian Open, after defeating defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the semifinals on Friday

In a match that lasted three hours and 20 minutes, the 4th-seeded Italian outplayed World No 1 and tournament top-seed Djokovic in four sets 6-1; 6-2; 6-7 (6-8); 6-3.

"Awesome. I don’t know what to say really," the tournament’s official website quoted Sinner as saying after his win over Djokovic. "The confidence from end of last year has for sure kept the belief that I can play against the best players in the world and I’m really happy that I can play Sunday my first [Grand Slam] final."

"It was a very, very tough match," Sinner said. "I started off really well. He missed for two sets. I felt like he wasn’t feeling that great on court, so I just tried to keep pushing and then in the third set I had match point and I missed the forehand, but you know, this is tennis."

"I just tried to be ready for the next set and obviously the atmosphere was so great," the Italian player added.

Sinner, 22, is currently ranked 4th in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings and has won 10 ATP tournaments in his career. This will be his first Grand Slam final.

Djokovic, 36, shares the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles with women’s great Margaret Court. However, Court won 13 out of her 24 Grand Slam champion’s titles before the Open Era (since 1968). On the men’s side, Djokovic’s closest contender in terms of Grand Slam titles is Spain’s Rafael Nadal with 22.

In addition to his 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic has won 98 ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) titles, a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 Davis Cup.

Last year, Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, not dropping a set in any of his finals appearances. He defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3; 7-6; 7-6 at the 2023 Australian Open, outplayed Norway’s Casper Ruud 7-6 (7-1); 6-3; 7-5 at the 2023 French Open in addition to his 2023 US Open win over Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev. In his only loss on the biggest stage in 2023, the Serb suffered a five-set defeat to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, which prevented him from completing the elusive calendar Grand Slam.

The 2024 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 14-28 and has a purse of $57.8 mln in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 112th edition this year. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.