Live from Wimbledon Day 12 - Sinner, Zverev to clash for title

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, live from Wimbledon and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. Well, so much for being at risk of hitting the curfew tonight. It is 7 p.m., our earliest showtime of The Fortnite, and both men's singles semi-finals are done and dusted. Jannik Sinner heard rumors that people were expecting a five-set classic, maybe even an upset like we saw in Australia, and he decided to laugh in the face of those rumors, David. The real Jannik Sinner showed up on Centre Court today.

**David** (0:46)
Yeah, I did think he might, and my word did we get the real deal today.
Everything was there, everything. He looked fresh, he looked tuned in, he looked like he'd fixed one or two issues with his game. There were a few shonky forehands here and there, but I mean, basically, he was awesome today, and he just looked like the guy that we thought we were going to get a few months ago, when he arrived into the French Open. You know, if you think of that incredible run he had in the spring, and then it disappeared, didn't it, in the French, in the heat of the day. It was warm today, but it wasn't horrifically hot, and he wasn't out there for long enough to make that a consideration. I actually thought Djokovic played pretty well for two sets there. I certainly thought he was better than he was against Sinner last year, and it was a similar scoreline, but I think Sinner was just electrifying today.

**Catherine** (1:50)
And we probably shouldn't underestimate that skill, that ability, that sort of champion superpower of just being able to play as well as you need to on the day, right? I've been doubting his level, doubting his form, and I think that's been valid, but he is just a player now that goes, oh, okay, it's Novak Djokovic. I'm in a semi-final. I'm going to need to play better today.
Here it is.

**Matt** (2:17)
Yeah, and even at 39, having come off a five-hour match, Djokovic, I think, still has that effect on a draw, particularly for Jannik Sinner, who lost to him in this round at a Grand Slam this year. He was never going to take this lightly, and he was just so dialed in. Like, everything that has turned Jannik Sinner into a dominant world number one was functioning today.
Even the half chances that Djokovic created just got immediately snuffed out, often with a big serve. It was that kind of tennis from Sinner. He was rushing Djokovic again. He was pinning the ball on his baseline, sliding across the baseline to defend what Djokovic was throwing at him. Total poise and self-assuredness about himself. And yeah, it was the kind of performance that made you realize what a miracle Melbourne was for Djokovic, right? Like it was a reminder of what this matchup had looked like for a couple of years.

**Catherine** (3:19)
For quite a while now.

**Matt** (3:20)
Before Melbourne, you know? And Djokovic that night pulled off something that no one can ever take away from him and was one of his all-time great performances. And he did it in the most dramatic way, in five sets, late at night, saving, what was it? 16 of 18 break points. Looking back now, it was, yeah, it was a one-off performance of total greatness. And this was more of a reversion to what we've seen in the last few years. And I have to think that some of the five and a bit hours the other day played some part. I didn't think Djokovic was as good today. I thought there were good moments, but I never really felt like he entered that mode of the ball, trampolining off his racket and being able to withstand what Sinner had.
I thought he was just a little bit off it and that got exposed by a guy who was in his prime totally on it.

**Catherine** (4:23)
I had received multiple messages from friends and family, some casual tennis fans, some not, saying they found certainly the last 45 minutes of that quite sad from a Djokovic perspective.

**David** (4:38)
Yeah, I agree. I was out there throughout the second set. We were sort of sharing the seat that we had. It's one of those days where the press box is so full, there's not room for everybody. And so I went out in the second set and Djokovic was having his best period of the match there. He got to 30 all on the first two service games of Sinner. He got to love 30 on his third service game. And then again, as you said, that's when Sinner found his absolute best stuff when he most needed it to see off the threat. Once they're in that third set, there really was an inevitability about it all. And Djokovic knew it. Even in the last point of the match, he didn't really want to win it because he just he'd had enough. You know, and I totally understand that. He couldn't win anymore.