Wimbledon semi-finals: Will Jannik Sinner halt Novak Djokovic's potential farewell tour or will unthinkable happen to Italian again?

At 39-years-old, 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic is raging against the dying of the light as far as his professional career is concerned. But rage he is most certainly doing. 

The combustible, often-controversial Serb has appeared to struggle with fatigue through each of his last three encounters at this year's Wimbledon championships, but somehow has hung in and dug out victories seemingly just within the nick of time.

Perhaps it's his aura, allied to his immense defence and will to win, but his opponents have been unable to kill him off when presented chances.

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Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada's 25-year-old third seed at this year's tournament, lost a first set 6-7 (10-12) he should never have lost against Djokovic in their quarter-final, and proceeded to miss several other big chances against his ailing opponent, only to then produce a poor 10-point fifth set tie-break performance as Djokovic progressed.

Djokovic underwent treatment on his left calf as early as the first set in that contest - whether tactical or otherwise remains unclear - and appeared a man on the brink of exhaustion late into a gruelling 5hr 15min epic - the longest Wimbledon quarter-final in history.

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But the ability to survive a contest of that length does not render his fatigue and vulnerability a misnomer. It has been a repetitive theme.

In his third-round clash against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, Djokovic appeared to hit a wall, losing the third set 6-1 and struggling through a fourth set he did well to hang on in and force into a tie-break. He then produced a clutch, or in his own words "perfect," tie-break display to get through.

If that contest had gone to a fifth set, the Serb was in major trouble.

His fourth-round contest against world No 132 Roman Safiullin, who surprisingly beat Djokovic's French Open nemesis Joao Fonseca a round prior and did the seventh seed a major favour in the process, proved much the same.

Safiullin somehow lost a first set from the jaws of victory 6-7 (6-8), failing when serving it out, and was all over Djokovic in winning the third 6-3. But he could not kick on thereafter, going out in four sets.

Then came Djokovic's incredible quarter-final against Auger-Aliassime. Should a 25-year-old ever lose to a 39-year-old in a contest over five hours? Possibly not. Auger-Aliassime will have huge regrets.

Were Carlos Alcaraz fit and in this year's championship and Djokovic ran into the likes of him or Alexander Zverev in the quarters instead of Auger-Aliassime, would the veteran still be in the draw? Doubtful.

Yet, it's also clear you can't write Djokovic off, no matter how shattered he appears on court.

He is yet to explicitly reveal his retirement plans, and so long as he continues to reach the latter stages of Grand Slams, one imagines he will keep competing.

But Wimbledon this year would be his 11th Slam in a row without a title should he falter, and he also failed to rule out this being his final year when exiting in Melbourne and Paris.

The only thing stopping Sinner making final would be his own body

And what of world No 1 and top seed Jannik Sinner?

If he plays to his maximum, there is nothing this version of Djokovic will be able to do to stop him, in truth.

Djokovic did defeat Sinner in stunning fashion during the semi-finals of the Australian Open back in January, but there is little to no recent evidence the former is capable of producing similar this week.

The 24-year-old is too mobile, too dynamic and too powerful.

But...there is no guarantee that version of Sinner turns up, and if he does, there's no guarantee of it sustaining.

The Italian headed into this Wimbledon under a cloud of his French Open performance in May, losing a near un-loseable Grand Slam with Alcaraz out injured and the form of the rest of the field far inferior to his own - the Italian on a 30-match winning streak heading to France.

It was the manner in which he suffered defeat too, though, having been 6-3 6-2 5-1 ahead and serving for the match before suffering from cramp and dizziness in the Parisian sunshine.

Indeed, he was sensationally knocked out in the second-round against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, losing 15 points in a row before calling for a medical timeout and treatment in the middle of a game.

Courtside mics captured Sinner saying he felt dizzy and nauseous as he fell 0-40 down on serve. From 5-1 ahead in the third the Italian proceeded to lose the next six games before and after treatment to lose the set 7-5.

Sinner was broken twice in the fourth set with his body continuing to fail him, before the final set saw Cerundolo break straight away and, despite some nervy moments, clinch the match by winning the decider 6-1.

Sinner bent over on the clay court in apparent exhaustion multiple times and was hardly even running for shots as the match wore on, resorting to drop shots and serve-and-volley tactics to try and shorten the points.

He attempted to cool himself with a hand-held fan on changeovers and put bags of ice around his neck.

The temperature at the start of that match was 29C and then rose to 32C, defeat coming after Sinner very nearly exited the Australian Open in January due to cramps.

He was saved on that occasion against American ​Eliot Spizzirri due to a break to close the roof - but did withdraw from a Shanghai Masters clash against Tallon Griekspoor in October 2025 due to heat exhaustion.

The defeat at Roland Garros again laid bare physical issues, but perhaps also some mental ones. Would Djokovic or Alcaraz have lost a match from 6-3 6-2 5-1 in front? Almost certainly not. They would have found a way to win just one more game, as they have done countless times already when under the pump.

Alcaraz managed to beat Zverev in January's Australian Open semi-finals while practically on one leg for two sets, for example.

Temperatures at Wimbledon were even hotter than 32C on Thursday for the women's semi-finals. Could we see another weather-induced Sinner performance collapse? Don't rule it out.

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