Ruthless Sinner beats Djokovic to set up Alcaraz final

Wimbledon 2025

Venue: All England Club Dates: 30 June-13 July

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Jannik Sinner will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final after a ruthless demolition of Novak Djokovic's latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic, 38, was left reflecting on how age was catching up with him after a humbling 6-3 6-3 6-4 defeat by a man who plays uncannily like the seven-time champion in his prime.

Sinner's victory put him into a first Wimbledon final and set up a re-match of last month's epic French Open showpiece, where he lost in five sets to Alcaraz having led by two sets and seen three championship points saved.

At least one of Sinner and Alcaraz have contested the men's singles final at the last six Grand Slam tournaments, while Sinner is going for a first title away from the hard courts against Alcaraz, a two-time winner at the All England Club.

Djokovic had admitted previously that this tournament on his favourite surface offered probably his best chance of setting a standalone record of major singles title.

"These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I'm going into the match with tank half empty. It's just not possible to win a match like that," Djokovic said.

"I don't think it's bad fortune. It's just age, the wear and tear of the body."

Having been largely outplayed for two sets, Djokovic threatened a comeback in the third but Sinner remarkably won five games in a row on his way to securing a fifth Grand Slam final.

Three-time major winner Sinner, 23, has now won the last six meetings against Djokovic but this was the first time on grass.

There were doubts around the fitness of both players before the match and, while Sinner did not seem hampered by his elbow injury, Djokovic did require a medical time out after the second set and admitted he had considered "withdrawing".

Another final between Sinner and Alcaraz just five weeks after the last one at Roland Garros gives the Italian a chance for revenge against the Spaniard, who beat American fifth seed Taylor Fritz 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6 (8-6) in Friday's first semi-final on a sweltering hot day.

"It's a huge honour for me to share the court again with Carlos," Sinner said.

"Hopefully it will be a good match like the last one - I don't know if it will be better because I don't know if that's possible but we will try - hopefully it will be an enjoyable match."

Sinner imperious as Djokovic future unsure

Defeat here for Djokovic calls into question whether he will ever achieve that elusive 25th major title.

He has made the final at the All England Club in every edition since 2017 and it is his first semi-final loss since defeat by Roger Federer in 2012.

But Wimbledon has not yet seen the last of him as he said he was aiming to come back "definitely at least one more time".

Having ended Sinner's last two Wimbledon runs - in the quarter-final last year and semis the year before - this time the shoe was on the other foot as the fresh and sharp Italian made the not-fully-fit Djokovic work for every point.

The opening set passed by in a blur as Djokovic clung on in a tight game at 5-3, having gone down an early break, but Sinner was too good for him in the rallies and cruised to a one-set lead.

An early break of serve followed in the second and Djokovic created no break points in the opening two sets.

He called a medical timeout after losing the second, perhaps still struggling after a nasty slip at the end of his last-eight match against Flavio Cobolli.

Djokovic threatened a comeback in the third set, pouncing on a loose service game from Sinner to hand himself some momentum in the match.

But hopes of that were soon extinguished when Sinner rediscovered his serve to save double-break points then broke back when Djokovic's drop shot fell back on his side of the net.

Sinner then showed incredible mental resilience by putting any potential threat of a repeat of the French Open final to bed when he broke again and then impressively held serve on a five-game winning streak before serving out the match with his fourth match point.

'Calm' Alcaraz into third successive final

Alcaraz's winning run at Wimbledon has extended to 24 matches and his battling display against Fritz again underlined he will be tough to beat in Sunday's final.

The Spaniard's matches at Wimbledon have mostly been characterised by him making slow starts, but that was not the case on Friday as he immediately broke Fritz's powerful serve.

His aggressive start appeared to startle his opponent and Alcaraz looked on course to win in straight sets as he raced through the opener, even unperturbed by having something in his eye at one point that required attention.

But Fritz, 27, responded well in the second set, keeping pace with Alcaraz and that seemed to take its toll on the Spaniard for the first time as he was broken at 6-5 to level matters.

Alcaraz's response to that was as devastating as it was swift, breaking Fritz early once again before winning 13 unanswered points and not dropping a single one on his serve in the first four games on his way to taking the third set.

But Alcaraz's battling qualities were required once again as Fritz, looking to become the first American man to reach a Wimbledon singles final since 2009, once again found his serve, at one stage hitting a four-ace game.

Just as the crowd were settling in for a prospective fifth set after Fritz brought up two set points, Alcaraz responded by seeing them both off and then sealing his match point opportunity to reach a Grand Slam final for the sixth time.