{"id":170152,"date":"2026-01-30T15:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=170152"},"modified":"2026-02-01T00:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:04:12","slug":"novak-outlasts-sinner-in-sf-marathon-final-vs-alcaraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-outlasts-sinner-in-sf-marathon-final-vs-alcaraz\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak outlasts Sinner in SF marathon! Final vs Alcaraz!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Novak Djokovic advanced to his 11th <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Open<\/a> final in dramatic fashion on Friday afternoon, when he overcame two-time defending titlist Jannik Sinner in a marathon semi-final win.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The fourth-seed recorded a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory after four hours, nine minutes inside Rod Laver Arena.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KSivBvttyDM?si=Aye2b9f6rR1dqX98\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Novak broke three times from eighth opportunities, while the Italian used two of his 18 break point chances.<\/p>\n<p>After dropping the opening set and then slipping two sets to one behind, the 10-time Australian Open champion found his strength and focus to get back into the clash and win the gripping battle.<\/p>\n<p>In the deciding and tense final set, Djokovic showcased once again why he is the Champion. The Serbian star saved all eight break points he faced, including three from 0\/40 at *4-3. He failed to convert his first two match points, however, it was third time lucky for the 38-year-old ace, who dropped to his knees shortly after sealing the triumph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI am lost for words right now, to be honest,\u201d<\/strong> said Djokovic. <strong>\u201cIt feels surreal. Playing for over four hours&#8230; The level of intensity and the quality of tennis was extremely high and I knew that was the only way for me to win tonight against him. He won the past five matches against me. I have tremendous respect for him, an incredible player. He pushes you to the very limit, which is what he did tonight to me, so he deserves a great round of applause. Tonight has been one of the best nights, atmosphere and support-wise, I have had in Australia.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Statistics: aces (12-26), double faults (3-2), winners (46-72), unforced errors (42-42), total points won (140-152).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will take on world no.1 Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday&#8217;s final (5-4 ATP H2H record).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Photo: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak advanced to his 11th Australian Open final in dramatic fashion, when he overcame two-time defending titlist Jannik Sinner in a marathon semi-final win. The fourth-seed recorded a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory after four hours, nine minutes inside Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":170136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101011992,101013508,101010469,101013349,101012051,101010433],"class_list":["post-170152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-australia","tag-australian-open-2026-en","tag-grand-slam-en-2","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-melbourne","tag-semifinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170152"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170167,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170152\/revisions\/170167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}