Novak Djokovic reacts to shocking stat as he gives brutal assessment of Jannik Sinner defeat

Ewan West
Novak Djokovic in his loss to Jannik Sinner
Novak Djokovic looks on

Novak Djokovic has issued a brutal verdict by describing his loss to Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open as “one of the worst Grand Slam matches” he has ever played.

The world No 1 admitted he was “shocked” with his own level and felt all aspects of his game were subpar”, but also hailed Sinner’s display as “flawless.”

Defending champion Djokovic fell to a 1-6, 2-6, 7-6(5), 3-6 defeat to world No 4 Sinner in the semi-finals of the 2024 Australian Open on Friday.

It was the 36-year-old’s first loss at the Melbourne Grand Slam since 2018 and his first ever loss in the semi-finals of the tournament, which he has won a record 10 times.

The Serbian has now lost three of his last four matches against the 22-year-old Italian, who also downed him at the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup Finals in November.

Remarkably, the three-hour-and-26-minute contest was the first time Djokovic did not have a break point in a completed Grand Slam match in his career.

Following his convincing loss to Sinner, the 24-time major champion was highly critical of his own performance.

“Well, first I want to congratulate Sinner for playing a great match, great tournament so far. He’s deservedly in the finals. He outplayed me completely today,” Djokovic said.

“Look, I was, in a way, shocked with my level, you know, in a bad way. There was not much I was doing right in the first two sets (smiling). Yeah, I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I’ve ever played. At least that I remember.

“Yeah, not a very pleasant feeling playing this way. But at the same time, you know, credit to him for doing everything better than me, you know, in every aspect of the game.

“I tried, I fought. I managed to kind of raise the level a little bit in the third, saved match point, played a good tiebreak. But again, you know, the fourth set, very bad game to lose, you know, 40-Love up on 1-2, and kind of against the wind a little bit.

“Yeah, just overall the performance-wise level of my tennis was, you know, really not great. I guess in those moments you just try to, you know, find the serenity, but at the same time try to uplift, you know, yourself and your game.

“That’s what I tried, but, you know, and the crowd was great. I think they were really fair towards both players. Lots of support for both Jannik and I. That’s all. You know, congratulations to him.”

Djokovic, who is regarded by many as tennis’ greatest ever returner, was also asked about the fact he was not able to create a break point opportunity.

“Yeah, probably that stat says a lot. I mean, first of all, he was serving, he was serving very accurately precise, he was backing his serve very well. Yeah, myself, I just, yeah, I just — it’s hard to describe, you know, everything, I mean, we don’t have that much time,” the 36-year-old assessed.

“There’s a lot of negative things that I’ve done on the court today in terms of my game that I’m not really pleased with in return or, you know, movement or forehand, backhand. Everything, you know, was just subpar. So, yeah, he was very dominant. Dominant on his service games.

“Obviously if you serve well and if you don’t face a break point, you know, it plays with the mind of your opponent, meaning you can put more pressure on his service games, my service games in this case, and you kind of swing freely. Yeah, I mean, congrats to him. He just played a flawless match.”

READ MORE: Seven sensational stats and facts from Jannik Sinner’s sublime win over Novak Djokovic

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