Novak Djokovic
Before the start of this major, Djokovic was among the favorites, although it looked more like a tribute to the Serb’s past achievements. Nole reached the fourth round without any problems, even strong Czechs Makhach and Lehechka did not become difficult opponents.
The main test was in the quarterfinals, Novak was considered a slight underdog in the battle with Alcaraz, he lost the first set, winning 2:0, but he fought hard and still managed to beat the Spaniard by 16 years younger – 4:6, 6:4 , 6:3, 6:4. Such success should clearly add confidence to the titled athlete, after such a match, the 25th helmet in 2025 turns into a real goal.
The Serb is 37 years old, many believed that he would not be physically able to withstand the pace of Alcaraz, but the players showed a considerable number of long and beautiful rallies. Djokovic is definitely too early to be written off, the skill and experience are there, and the endurance is not letting him down in this tournament.
If we further analyze the exhibition match against Alcaraz, Novak seriously lost to the winners – 31:50, but made fewer unforced errors, and also won 67% of the draws on the reception from the opponent’s second serve. In other words, Djokovic made full use of his strengths.
After such a bright quarter-final, the Serbian’s chances for the 11th Australian Slam have clearly increased. The break between matches is solid, there is time to recover before the semi-finals.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Novak Djokovic Alexander Zverev
The famous German tennis player confidently reached the semifinals of the first major of the season. It took Zverev a little more than 12 hours to win five matches, after one of the meetings the journalist even joked whether the athlete was in a hurry to meet his girlfriend if he played so fast.
The tennis player won the first three meetings at the tournament in three sets, and defeated Umber and Paul in four games. The longest match was against the American Tommy Paul – 7:6, 7:6, 2:6, 6:1, the opponents spent 3 hours and 32 minutes on the court.
For Zverev, this is the third semi-final of the Aus Open, he did not enter further, the German also has two lost major finals, he has never won a Grand Slam tournament. The tennis player’s big trump card is his serve, in the last match he served at an average speed of 207 km per hour.
Zverev knows how to bombard opponents with his powerful shots, the tennis player often lost to winners at this tournament, trying to play reliably, he will rather make the opponent make a mistake or wait for an unforced error. The goal of winning at least one helmet certainly puts pressure on the athlete, although he is 27 years old, it is definitely not the end of his career.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Alexander Zverev Personal meetings
The head-to-head score is 8:4 in favor of Djokovic, the last time the tennis players met was in 2023, in the semifinals of the Cincinnati tournament, when the Serb won – 7:6, 7:5. The tennis players played at the majors three times, in all cases Zverev lost.
Forecast
In this pair, Djokovic is a slight favorite, although if this meeting took place before the match with the aforementioned Spaniard, perhaps the schedule would be different. Bookmakers give 1.64 for the success of the Serbian tennis player and 2.35 for the victory of Zverev. Such a match cannot be short, it will be a “robbing” of the audience. Let’s take a bet total more than 39.5 games for a coefficient of 1.75.
Novak Djokovic 01/24/2025 –
05:30
Alexander Zverev
Source: sport.ua