‘Concerned’ Djokovic prepares for Australian Open semi-final after Sinner demolishes De Minaur – live

Djokovic secured victory in a thrilling last eight clash in four sets, fighting back from a set down while battling an injury.

Alcaraz’s experience of the Olympic final at Roland Garros, where Djokovic raised his level to win that elusive gold medal last summer in a hugely emotional defeat for the young Spaniard, ensured he needed no reminder of how fearsome an opponent the 37-year-old remains when fully fit.

But as Djokovic struggled to move from side to side, let alone return his groundstrokes on the run or hit through his opponent from the back of the court, Alcaraz’s shoulders relaxed.

Djokovic, head down, exited the Rod Laver Arena for a medical timeout, returning after several minutes with heavy strapping around his upper left leg.

A few moments later, Alcaraz wrapped up the first set; having beaten Djokovic in consecutive Wimbledon finals over best-of-five, it looked a long way back for the 10-time Australian Open champion.

Rarely in professional sport is one person so visibly better than their opponent in ever aspect of play than this. Serves, second serves, movement, accuracy, and ball-striking all favoured the 23-year-old who put in a display that validated his ranking as the best tennis player in the world… not that he needed to.

American tennis player Ben Shelton criticized on Wednesday some of the questions and comments made by post-match TV interviewers at the Australian Open.

After Shelton reached the semifinals at the Grand Slam tournament, he followed his final answer at his news conference by saying: “One thing that I just want to say before we’re done: I’ve been a little bit shocked this week with how players have been treated by the broadcasters.”

Jannik Sinner brushed off concerns about his health with a brutal destruction of home hope Alex De Minaur in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

The two-time defending champion was in real trouble in his previous round against Holger Rune, taking a long medical timeout and visibly shaking, and admitted afterwards that he was not feeling well.

Hot conditions also played their part and, more than 48 hours on and with temperatures having dropped significantly, Sinner was back to his brilliant best in a 6-3 6-2 6-1 victory.

“Last year we played some very tough matches.

“Obviously he’s one of the best servers on tour, he’s a lefty and all different rotation on the ball is coming and hopefully I’m ready and I can return as many serves as possible, and then trying to stay very concentrated about my game like today and staying aggressive.

“Yesterday was a very easy day, I played just 30-40 minutes with my coaches so they gave me a good rhythm.

“Talking generally about physical when you are young you recover very fast, so it’s a bit different and some days I really like to sleep and trying to rest in the best possible way.

“I’m not doing too many things at the moment, just trying to rest and recover and trying to be ready for the court.”

“I was feeling everything, when you break quite early in each set it’s a little bit easier but Alex de Minaur is a very tough competitor, he’s an amazing player and I know so many guys came for him tonight but thank you so much for being so fair, it was an amazing atmosphere.

“We know each other quite well now, we played last year so many times and we try to understand each other’s game and try and prepare each other in the best possible way.

“But these kind of matches can go quickly but they can also change very fast if I go down a level a little bit, he takes opportunities, so I’m very happy about my performance.”

A simple flick of the wrists from Sinner sends a backhand down the line and moves him 0-30 against the serve.

The Italian wants to finish this match and goes for a winner that he knocks too long.

De Minaur knows Sinner has upped his game. He tries to match him with a stretching backhand but Sinner blazes a shot down the line and has two match points.

De Minaur saves the first one with a strong serve to the forehand.

He can’t save the second. Another break for Jannik Sinner and the match is his.

Smash! After an opening ace, Sinner moves 30-0 up with a high forehand smash to De Minaur can do nothing about.

A rare error from the Italian opens the door slightly for a comeback but that is shut down after De Minaur pings a forehand too long.

Sinner takes the game with a cross court backhand. The angle is tight, the shot perfect and the World No.1 is living up to his ranking.