Two things that stood out in Novak Djokovic's semifinal win over Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon 2023

Second seed Novak Djokovic beat eighth seed Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4) in the 2023 Wimbledon semifinal on Friday, July 14. The match lasted more than a couple of hours, with the 21-year-old Italian finishing second despite fighting well for the majority of the match.

The Serb will take on top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in a highly-anticipated title clash on Sunday, July 16. He got the better of the Spaniard at the French Open last month when the latter suffered cramps midway through their semifinal contest.

Djokovic will be gunning for his eighth Wimbledon title on Sunday, achieving which will enable him to surpass Pete Sampras and level with Roger Federer.

On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:

#1. Jannik Sinner held his own in most of the baseline exchanges

Sinner is one of the few players who can hit the ball really hard off either wing and he fought well from the baseline against the Serb on Friday. The Italian hit a number of winners with his down-the-line backhand and also managed to pass his opponent on a number of occasions.

However, Djokovic was the better player at the net, using his quality drop shots and silken touch to stun the Italian on a regular basis. Sinner was rather one-dimensional in his approach and eventually paid the price for it. The 36-year-old got decisive breaks of serve in each of the first two sets to race to a 2-0 lead.

#2. Novak Djokovic was yet again the better player during clutch moments

The World No. 2 has made it a habit of playing better than his much younger opponents during key moments in a match for quite some time now. Friday was no exception in this regard, as the Serb saved a couple of set points when he was 4-5, 15-40 down in the third set and held his serve.

The set then went into a tie-break that saw Sinner gain a 3-1 lead. However, he committed a double fault to allow the Serb some leeway before hitting three successive shots into the net to hand over the victory to his opponent.

They went neck and neck for the most part of the match and were pretty much even in terms of most of the vital statistics. Still, Djokovic’s ability to play better during crunch moments saw him through yet again.