Novak Djokovic suffered an uncharacteristic defeat to Jannik Sinner in the semi-final of the Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat to Jannik Sinner in the semi-final of the Australian Open last week – his first loss in Melbourne since 2018. The world No. 1 looked a shadow of his usual self as he went out 6-1 6-2 6-7(6) 6-3 and failed to have a single break point opportunity throughout the match. And it has now emerged that Djokovic was unwell with a fever the night before the match, also “refusing” to go to the doctor.
Djokovic’s dominant run in Melbourne came to an end as Sinner snapped his six-year, 33-match win streak at the Australian Open. Previously, the 36-year-old had always gone on to win the title when he reached the semis. But the world No. 4 sent him packing and went on to lift the trophy himself.
It was an uncharacteristic performance from Djokovic – especially in the first two sets, where he won just three total games. For the first time in a Grand Slam match, he had zero break point chances throughout the three-hour and 22-minute contest. Djokovic later branded it “one of the worst Grand Slam matches” he’d ever played.
But it appears that there was more to Djokovic’s defeat than just a bad day at the office, as Serbian reporter Luka Nikolic revealed that the 24-time Grand Slam champion had been struggling with the flu. “He got a fever the night before the semi-finals,” Nikolic said on the Reketiranje podcast.
“Something similar to what [Alexander] Zverev had. He was sick for three weeks, but some virus caught him again.” The Serbian journalist also explained that Djokovic “refused” a visit to the doctor so the media wouldn’t find out about his illness.
He added: “Some colds get worse… It can’t play well with temperature. He didn’t want to go to the doctor so that the journalists wouldn’t break it and make a fuss about it. That’s why he played so badly in the first two sets, it was obvious that he was weak and that he couldn’t do it.”
In the early rounds of the tournament, Djokovic was seen blowing his nose on the court and confirmed that he had been suffering from sickness in the lead-up to the Australian Open. Speaking after his tight first-round win over Dino Pizmic, the 36-year-old said: “Yeah, I am a bit under the weather last, yeah, four, five days.
“You can probably judge by my voice. Look, it is what it is. You just have to try to deal with it and get over it and accept the circumstances and try to make the most of it.” And he doubled down after being pushed to four sets against Alexei Popyrin in the second round.
“Look, I haven’t been playing or feeling at my best the last, whatever, week or so. Yeah, it’s frustrating at times with kind of the level of tennis that I’m playing on the court and some uncharacteristic mistakes that I make. At the same time, that’s sport,” Djokovic confessed.
But Djokovic didn’t bring up the illness after losing to Sinner. “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,” he said after the worrying defeat, admitting that he was “shocked with my level in a bad way” and hadn’t “really played close to my best” throughout the tournament.
