Novak Djokovic reached the final of the Australian Open for the ninth time in his career on Thursday. The world’s number one ended the fairy tale of Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who made his Grand Slam debut in Melbourne, within two hours.
At times, 33-year-old Djokovic had a hard time against revelation Karatsev, who played uninhibitedly in the Rod Laver Arena as an absolute underdog and came along well in the rallies. The number 114 in the world, however, was too changeable to have a serious chance at a stunt against the Serbian: 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2.
Thus, Karatsev’s bizarre series of victories came to an end. The 27-year-old Russian, who had to win three matches in the qualifying tournament to reach the main schedule at all, was too strong on his way to the last four for Diego Schwartzman (ATP-9), Félix Auger-Aliassime (ATP-19 ) and Grigor Dimitrov (ATP-21).
Djokovic proved to be in good shape against Karatsev after a difficult start to the tournament. The global number one injured his abs in his third round match against Taylor Fritz and was heading for elimination, but remained standing and was then too strong for Milos Raonic and Alexander Zverev.
Due to his titles in 2019 and 2020, Djokovic is now unbeaten at the Australian Open for twenty games in a row. He qualified for the 28th time in his career for the final of a Grand Slam tournament and is thus on a level with Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer was in the final battle of one of the four majors 31 times.
Aslan Karatsev fiercely defended Novak Djokovic, but did not come close to stunting the Serb.
Aslan Karatsev fiercely defended Novak Djokovic, but did not come close to stunting the Serb. Photo: ANP
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Djokovic can step up to Grand Slam record
In the final on Sunday, Djokovic awaits a showdown with Stéfanos Tsitsipás or Daniil Medvedev. The fifth-seeded Greek and the fourth-seeded Russian will play against each other on Friday morning in Melbourne, where fans have been welcome in the stands since Thursday.
Djokovic can win the Australian Open for the third year in a row and for the ninth time in total. In that case, ‘The Djoker’ comes to eighteen Grand Slam titles and takes a new step towards the Grand Slam record, which is still held by Federer and Nadal (twenty titles each).
Federer was not yet fit enough to play in the Australian Open and Nadal was eliminated in the quarter-finals on Wednesday by Tsitsipás, who was 2-0 behind in sets against the Spaniard.
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