Melbourne (Australia), Jan 29 (EFE). — The four best tennis players in the world, the top four seeds, are vying for the title of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season. The decision will be made this weekend with the two semifinals on Friday and the final on Sunday. Carlos Alcaraz, world number one, Jannik Sinner, champion of the last two editions, Alexander Zverev, last year's finalist, and Novak Djokovic, a ten-time winner, are all accelerating towards conquering the competition. The only one missing from his trophy cabinet. If Alcaraz and Sinner win, it will be the same title battle as last year, something that has only happened consecutively twice in history. The semifinals will feature Alcaraz vs. Zverev and Sinner vs. Djokovic. The Spaniard and the Italian are the undisputed dominators of the circuit. Since the start of the 2024 season, each has won four major titles and have faced each other in the finals of the last three, with the exception of the Australian one. Sinner leads 3-1 in their head-to-heads in Grand Slam semifinals. For Sinner, this is an opportunity to defeat Djokovic for a sixth consecutive time and become the first player to achieve six consecutive circuit-level wins against the Serbian. He could also become the third player to reach six consecutive Grand Slam finals after Federer and Djokovic. In another scenario, if the Italian defeats Zverev in the final, he would become the third player to win three titles in Australia, a feat achieved by only five. Djokovic is the only player to have beaten both Alcaraz and Sinner in the same tournament: he beat Alcaraz in the semifinals and Sinner in the final of the 2023 ATP Finals. Meanwhile, Alcaraz and Zverev will face each other for the thirteenth time, breaking the current tie of six wins each. This will be their first meeting in a Grand Slam semifinal. They have previously played two quarterfinals and one final. Zverev won their only match in Australia, in the 2024 quarterfinals. If the Spaniard and the Italian fulfill their favorite status in the semifinals, they will play in a Grand Slam final for the fifth time in a row. However, if Zverev and Djokovic reach the final, it would be the fourth time in the Open Era that the top two favorites fall in the Australian Open semifinals, and the fifth time overall in Grand Slams.
