ATP Tour
Djokovic: ‘I wish to thank all of the doubters’
Serbian snaps five-match shedding streak to Sinner to set Australian Open closing towards Alcaraz
January 30, 2026
WILLIAM WEST / AFP through Getty Photographs
Novak Djokovic celebrates reaching his thirty eighth main closing on Friday.
By ATP Employees
Low cost Novak Djokovic at your peril.
Simply when Jannik Sinner seemed set to ebook a fourth consecutive Grand Slam closing with Carlos Alcaraz on the Australian Open, the ageless Serbian produced a comeback for the ages to earn the prospect to play for a twenty fifth Grand Slam crown.
“I by no means stopped believing in myself,” mentioned the 10-time Australian Open champion, who will play Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s closing at Melbourne Park. “There’s lots of people that doubt me. A whole lot of specialists needed to retire me or have retired me many occasions the final couple of years.
“I wish to thank all of them, as a result of they gave me power. They gave me motivation to show them fallacious, which I’ve tonight. For me, it is not a shock, to be sincere.”
Djokovic rallied from two-sets-to-one right down to snap a five-match shedding streak towards two-time defending champion Sinner, profitable 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 within the four-hour and nine-minute thriller that completed at 1:30 a.m.
Djokovic, who mentioned he is not going to practise Saturday, made essentially the most of his success to achieve the semi-finals. Within the fourth spherical he obtained a walkover from his Miami Open closing conqueror Jakub Mensik; within the quarter-finals he trailed Lorenzo Musetti by two units earlier than the Italian retired with a proper leg damage.
However towards Sinner, an opponent 14 years his junior, Djokovic’s resilience, conviction and braveness underpinned his deserving victory, during which he saved 16 of 18 break factors, together with all eight within the closing set.
“I price it as the perfect [win] of the final couple of years,” Djokovic mentioned. “For positive, the most effective performances within the final decade or so…
“I used to be fortunate that clearly Lorenzo acquired harm and retired that match. Two days later, clearly totally different opponent. I knew precisely what to anticipate and had nice readability and technique and sport plan and what must be executed.
“One factor is to think about the way you wish to play, and the opposite factor is to ship it and execute it on the courtroom towards Sinner, that everyone knows is taking part in a particularly excessive degree.
“I am simply thrilled to have the ability to expertise one thing like this tonight.”
The victory was Djokovic’s first five-set match since Roland Garros in 2024, when he survived towards Francisco Cerundolo.
Djokovic has not lifted a serious trophy for the reason that US Open in 2023, watching Alcaraz and Sinner break up the eight majors in the course of the previous two years.
On Sunday, as Djokovic makes an attempt to develop into the oldest Australian Open champion, 22-year-old Alcaraz seeks to develop into the youngest males’s participant to finish the profession Grand Slam.
Djokovic leads Alcaraz 5-4 of their Lexus ATP Head2Head sequence, profitable three of their 4 hard-court conferences. However when Alcaraz broke via for his lone hard-court win within the 2025 US Open semi-finals, Djokovic candidly expressed doubts about his potential to topple the Spaniard and Sinner over 5 units on the majors. He’ll now have the prospect to show himself fallacious in back-to-back matches in what could be one of the crucial outstanding feats in his unparalleled profession.
“Historical past is on the road for each of us each time we play,” mentioned Djokovic, who has spent a document 424 weeks at No. 1 within the PIF ATP Rankings throughout his profession… My preparation is appropriately, and I received towards him final yr right here [in the quarter-finals], additionally in a grueling match. Let’s examine. Let’s examine how contemporary are we each capable of be.
“He additionally had an enormous match, however he has 15, 16 years on me. You already know, biologically I believe it should be a bit simpler for him to get better.
“I am simply making an attempt to benefit from the second that I am experiencing tonight. I will take into consideration finals later, however for me, that is win that just about equals profitable a Grand Slam.”
