Australian Open: Sinner promises to learn from 'hurtful' defeat to Djokovic

Jannik Sinner has vowed to learn from his painful Australian Open semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic, who now has a shot at becoming tennis' first 25-time grand slam champion.

Djokovic outlasted Sinner

- who had won the previous two editions of the Melbourne Park event - for a 3-6 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-4 success in a four-hour, 12-minute epic.

Jannik Sinner loses to Novak Djokovic

That match followed on from Carlos Alcaraz defeating Alexander Zverev in another epic tussle that lasted five hours and 27 minutes.

Djokovic is now into his first grand slam final since losing to Alcaraz in the 2024 Wimbledon showpiece and could surpass Margaret Court to take the outright record for grand slam victories by a male or female player.

Sinner, meanwhile, is left to ruminate on his first failure to reach a grand slam final since that same tournament a year and a half ago.

Djokovic gets better of Sinner on fourth occasion

Sinner had won his last three meetings with Djokovic in straight sets and was looking to become only the third man to reach three consecutive Australian Open finals, after Ivan Lendl and Djokovic.

He said: "[It hurts] a lot. It was a very important slam for me, of course, knowing also the background, but it can happen.

"It was a good match from both of us. I had many chances. I couldn't use them and that's the outcome. It hurts, for sure. "

20 - Novak Djokovic has become the player with the most top-10 wins at a single Grand Slam event since the ATP Rankings were published in 1973 (20, equalling Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros). Extraterrestrial.#AusOpen | @AustralianOpen @atptour pic.twitter.com/YeGP7mt81i

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) January 30, 2026

Sinner remains the only opponent to face Djokovic at least 10 times at ATP Tour level and hold a positive head-to-head record against the Serbian, at 6-5, but he was not surprised by the way the 38-year-old stepped up his level when it mattered.

"He's won 24 grand slams. We know each other very well, how we play," Sinner said of Djokovic.

"I always said, you cannot be surprised [by Djokovic], because I feel like he's the greatest player for many, many years.

"Of course, he's playing less tournaments because of his age and everything, but we also know how important grand slams are for me, for him, for Carlos, and everyone else.

"There is this small extra motivation, and he played great tennis. Hopefully I can take it as a lesson, to see what I can improve on. "