Australian Open 2024: The new champion is Jannik Sinner

The Russian Daniil Medvedev has already reached the final of the Australian Open twice: in 2021 against Novak Djokovic and in 2022 against Rafael Nadal. Both times he lost to the icons of tennis. But this time the chances were good that he could finally lift the trophy, because his opponent, Jannik Sinner, certainly had talent, but he had never been in the final of the Australian Open. On the other hand, it was Sinner who knocked record holder Novak Djokovic – 10-time winner of the Australian Open – out of the tournament in the semifinals. As expected, Medvedev clearly won the first two sets 6:3 and 6:3. Now it was actually only logical that he closed the bag. The fact that Medvedev dominated so clearly was also due to the fact that Sinner simply played weakly and insecurely. But in the third set Sinner woke up, he understood that he had to do much more if he wanted to have another chance of winning. Suddenly Jannik Sinner served surprisingly strong winners. The game has been taken to a new level. Sinner deservedly took the third set and thus preserved his chances of winning. It was increasingly clear that Medvedev was reaching his physical limits. He had to survive a tough five-set match against Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals and also had to fight over five sets against Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals. That was just a lot. He had had to do a lot more physically in the past few days than the South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner and he was now feeling this. Jannik Sinner became more and more self-confident as the match turned around and delivered winners accordingly. Overall, the match between the two cannot be compared with a match like Djokovic against Nadal. Medvedev in particular played safely and placed the balls much more centrally. Players like Djokovic and Nadal used to go all out and place balls in the far corner to chase their opponents across the court. And it was precisely such a risky game that Medvedev should have dared to play, given his poor fitness, he had to lose over five sets to the young Italian. So it happened as it had to happen. Jannik Sinner took the fourth set and when he was able to break Medvedev in the fifth set, the matter was clear. A few moves later, the Australian Open tournament had a new champion in Jannik Sinner. Incidentally, Jannik Sinner is the first Italian to win the Grand Slam tournament in Australia.