{"id":395592,"date":"2026-01-28T20:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395592\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T20:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:16:13","slug":"australian-open-2026-novak-djokovic-unsure-whether-good-fortune-leaves-him-fresh-or-undercooked-for-jannik-sinner-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395592\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open 2026: Novak Djokovic unsure whether good fortune leaves him fresh or undercooked for Jannik Sinner semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Djokovic feels being injury-free is a stroke of luck as he attempts to become the oldest Grand Slam men’s champion in the Open era.<\/p>\n

Considering his meticulous pursuit of almost every record there is in the sport, it feels wrong to put anything Djokovic down to fortune.<\/p>\n

But avoiding a default<\/a> in the third round, followed by a walkover and then a retirement, is an enviable pattern.<\/p>\n

Against Musetti, Djokovic also recovered from falling victim to his own exemplary sportsmanship.<\/p>\n

As he served to stay in the second set, Djokovic conceded a point by admitting to umpire James Keothavong he touched a ball on its way out. The Italian would go on to claim the game.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to double my prayers tonight,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt Djokovic needs to be sharper both technically and mentally if he is to end Sinner and Alcaraz’s recent dominance at the majors.<\/p>\n

Musetti was superb against Djokovic, but there was no escaping the fact the Serb was poor by his lofty standards.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ve underperformed for the level that I showed throughout this tournament,” Djokovic added.<\/p>\n

“I have to play better – no doubt about it.<\/p>\n

“I know that if I’m feeling well and the body is holding on and I’m playing well, then I always have a chance.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Djokovic feels being injury-free is a stroke of luck as he attempts to become the oldest Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-395592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}