Rising Stars Target Novak Djokovic Path to Tennis History:
French Open 2025 men’s singles semi-finals
Date: Friday, 6 June Time: 13:30 BST Venue: Roland Garros
Jannik Sinner (right) has won his past three matches against Novak Djokovic
Image credit goes to Getty Images
The ‘Big Three’ period may be drawing to an end, but the threat still exists.
Players born in the 1990s were limited to just two Grand Slam singles victories between them as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic sliced up the main prizes for over two decades.
Between them, two players born after 2000 have won seven big titles.
On a collision course in Paris, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz now rank second and third, respectively. Still, Novak Djokovic looms large as the “Gen Z” athletes try to augment their hauls.
Having turned out to be the oldest player to reach the last four since 1968, the 38-year-old meets Sinner, who is 15 years younger than him, in Friday’s second French Open semi-final.
World number three Alexander Zverev stated, “I think currently he’s a bit underrated,” after falling to Djokovic in four sets on Wednesday. “I believe many people already count him out, but this year he defeated me at the French Open and won over Carlos at the Australian Open. Ignorance of age is preferable.
For any player, those are rather decent performances. Defending champion Alcaraz will aim to keep his recent supremacy over Lorenzo Musetti in the first semi-final.
Djokovic is bidding for still another slice of history. Win in Paris, and he will land a record-breaking 25th big single championship. Since the adoption of the ATP rankings, no man has successfully overcome the top three men’s players to win a major.
Rising into the 51st major semi-final of his career, Djokovic is on a nine-match winning run. Following a run of three consecutive losses, victory in Geneva last month guaranteed him the 100th tour-level trophy of his career—a crucial confidence boost.
That streak included two opening-round losses to start his clay-court season, and the Olympic champion entered Roland Garros in the odd sixth seed position.
But he showed age is not stopping him as he won a 41-shot rally to avoid a break point in the fourth set on his way to defeat Zverev in three hours and 18 minutes.
With drop shots and serve-and-volley techniques, he showed amazing variation to challenge the German baseline supremacy. However, Sinner is expected to pose a tougher challenge.
Although their head-to-head record is 4-4, the Italian has prevailed in their last three encounters.
Following Djokovic (30), Federer (27), and Nadal (25), the reigning US Open and Australian Open champion is on a 19-match winning run at Grand Slam events, the fourth longest this century.
Seeking to be the first Italian man to win the championship since Adriano Panatta in 1976, he is following his own historical path at Roland Garros.
Sinner may become the first guy to win three consecutive majors since Djokovic in his 52nd week as world number one, despite serving a three-month drug suspension between February and May.
Sinner has not dropped a set this fortnight and is preparing to face what is likely the best defensive player the game has ever seen, known for his consistently accurate and devastatingly precise play.
Alcaraz looks to continue dominance over Musetti
Image credit goes to BBC Sport
Novak Djokovic is 14 years older than any of his fellow French Open semi-finalists
Alcaraz appeared to have reached peak performance precisely when required. Following his straight-set quarter-final victory over American Tommy Paul, the Spaniard remarked, “I could close my eyes and everything [would have gone] in.”
He lost just five games. Today, I had a wonderful sensation. Not thinking about anything else, I was simply aiming to hit every shot at 100%.
Having lost just one set in their last five meetings, the four-time major winner will now aim for a sixth consecutive victory over Musetti, not facing a single break point in that match.
After straying almost to a maiden major final, Musetti, whose only triumph over Alcaraz came in their first meeting back in 2022, has dropped to sixth in the live rankings.
Having worked to enhance his serve in the off-season, the Italian will want to show more resistance in their most recent match.
“We shortened a bit the motion to have more control, then I got more confidence in what I was having as a motion,” Musetti said.”
Right now, in really tough circumstances, I make an ace or have my serve as a weapon; it was a pretty big change for my game.”
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