Wimbledon semi-final: Jannik Sinner beats Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4Novak Djokovic returned to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, one of the venues that has most defined his legendary career, desperately hoping that he had enough left in the tank to conjure up another miracle. His run to another grand slam semi-final at 39 years old was an immense achievement, but he wanted more. He always wants more. The question was whether his ageing legs would allow it against the best player in the world.The answer to that question came swiftly and decisively. Jannik Sinner ensured that there would be no repeat of his defeat to Djokovic in their Australian Open semi-final at the beginning of the year, avenging that loss with a ruthless, efficient performance that moved him back into the Wimbledon final with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory. Sinner, the top seed, will face the second seed and recent French Open champion Alexander Zverev in the final after the German defeated Arthur Fery 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4.This was another demonstration of Sinner’s spectacular, continuous serve improvement. He served magnificently throughout the match, and particularly the few times Djokovic created half-chances in his service games. He faced just one break point in the entire match, at 2-1 in the third set, which he saved with an ace down the T before firing down two more brilliant serves to escape the game with a hold.Since his nervy, messy five-set first round win over Miomir Kecmanovic, Sinner had not dropped a set but he had also not faced another seeded player. Here he showed that, after that hiccup in Paris, he is again operating at an extremely high level. Sunday will be Sinner’s seventh grand slam final and he will attempt to win his fifth grand slam title.Djokovic, meanwhile, had been through the wars to become the second-oldest Wimbledon semi-finalist in the open era after Ken Rosewall. He had already navigated three bruising four-set matches just to reach the quarter-finals, and then it took an epic fight in the final stages of his match against the third seed Félix Auger-Aliassime to continue advancing.After spending five hours and 15 minutes on Centre Court on Tuesday, and struggling with various physical issues in the latter stages of major events over the past 18 months, this was a serious concern. Although Djokovic served well early on, he moved gingerly in the opening set, he was erratic on his groundstrokes and he was too passive. Once the ball was in play, Sinner completely overpowered Djokovic from the baseline.After a series of confident, uneventful holds, Sinner took control of the set at 4-4 with a return game that turned into a masterclass demonstration of one of the best backhands of all time. He opened the game by snatching the first point with an excellent, point-ending backhand down the line, then he reached 15-30 by dragging himself back into the point with an excellent defensive backhand at full stretch.At 15-30, he forced himself inside the baseline and pounded a cross-court backhand to end the point. Sinner snatched the decisive break of the set on his second break point by flitting to his left and eviscerating a supreme backhand down-the-line passing shot by a helpless Djokovic. Moments later, he served out the set without issue.Italy's Jannik Sinner winks at Serbia's Novak Djokovic after beating him. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty As Djokovic tried to increase his intensity and force himself into the match, he gave himself a couple of half-chances on Sinner’s serve but he was flat and erratic on the few opportunities he generated. Up 2-1, 30-30 on Sinner’s serve, Djokovic easily tracked down a mediocre drop shot from Sinner and had a great chance on his backhand to put the ball away and reach break point. Instead, he pitifully netted his attempt at a counter drop shot, then he sprayed a backhand long on the subsequent point. Sinner then served himself out of trouble to hold.A similar scenario occurred when Djokovic reached 0-30 on Sinner’s serve at 2-3, and a combination of excellent serving from Sinner and two dire errors from Djokovic scuppered the danger. Djokovic then immediately handed over the decisive break in set two with an error-strewn service game.Once Sinner had broken serve to lead 4-3, only another physical episode similar to his collapse at the French Open would have stopped him advancing. He kept his foot on Djokovic’s neck until the end, continuing to serve spectacularly well on every decisive point until he was one win away from becoming a two-time Wimbledon champion.Even now, after so many years, Djokovic’s mentality is unchanged. He enters these tournaments to win them and the fact that only two players, Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, have been able to consistently put him away at these stages, only further affirms his lofty ambitions.However, at the end of his career, regardless of whether he manages to win his 25th grand slam title, he will reflect on and appreciate how legendary this stretch of his career is. A 39-year-old losing in straight sets to the world No 1, who has generally been so dominant over the rest of the tour this year, is completely logical. Everything else he has done in this tournament, as in six of his last seven grand slam events, is not.Germany's Alexander Zverev returns to Britain's Arthur Fery during their men's singles semi-final tennis match at Wimbledon. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Alexander Zverev beats Arthur Fery 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4For about 45 minutes of this unfathomably enormous occasion in Arthur Fery’s otherwise understated career, the second-lowest ranked Wimbledon men’s semi-finalist in the open era handled business supremely well.Faced with tackling the sport’s newest grand slam champion, Alexander Zverev, he served well, gave very few errors away and demonstrated his sweet hand skills and court sense throughout. The one time he lost his serve, he snatched it back with anger. Fery reached the first set tie-break filled with confidence.But then, in a flash, the match escaped his grasp. Fery just seemed to briefly lose focus at the start, spraying a double fault and then a loose forehand on his first two service points. Suddenly, he was down 0-3. Then 0-5. Then he was sitting on his chair wondering where the set had gone.Once Fery faltered, he would spend the rest of his afternoon fruitlessly trying to recover his form as Zverev, the world No 3 and Roland Garros champion, gave Britain’s newest hope a masterclass in the focus and concentration it takes to compete with the best. The German ended Fery’s breakthrough semi-final run at Wimbledon with an emphatic 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 win.Arthur Fery of Great Britain during his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev of Germany. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA This remains an astounding two weeks for Fery, a result that absolutely no one could have imagined from a player who had never previously passed the second round of a grand slam and who started the fortnight as the world No 114. The madness ends with Fery having ensured his top-40 debut on Monday – he will be No 36. Having earned about £660,000 (€775,000) in his career until now, he leaves with a cool £900,000 (€1.05m) in prize money from reaching the last four. Most important, this is only the beginning. This run has given him a platform to truly establish himself on the ATP Tour, where his talent and toughness clearly belong.As a consequence of his heroics over the past two weeks, Fery, who is 24 on Sunday, found himself in ridiculous company on Friday. Before this tournament he had won two grand slam main-draw matches, yet here he was in the semi-finals alongside the three best active players in the world. Novak Djokovic, chasing his 25th grand slam title, and Jannik Sinner, the world number one and defending champion, were waiting in the wings for their semi-final.This match always represented an enormous step up in quality and class for Fery compared with his previous matches. It had taken by far the best tennis of his life to reach this point, but things only become more difficult every round in these tournaments, so he somehow needed to find an even higher level against Zverev. Now he is a Centre Court regular, the one thing that seemed certain was, considering the confidence and inner belief Fery draws upon each day, he would not be overawed by the occasion.The challenge before Fery was illustrated before the warm-up had even begun. As he walked out on to the court to a thunderous roar, the height difference between the 5ft 9in Fery and Zverev, who towers over most earthly beings at 6ft 6in, was immediately clear.Still, the Briton betrayed few nerves from the beginning, impressively retrieving Zverev’s early break at the first opportunity. He handled himself well throughout the set, serving well and landing more returns against Zverev’s monstrous first serve than the German’s previous opponents. Fery kept his error count low while also not hesitating to take the ball early off both wings and he used his improvisational skills well, volleying whenever he could sneak into the net. Fery was playing well and he looked comfortable.However, Fery badly lost his focus at the beginning of the tie-break. And with the first set secured, Zverev only relaxed further, continuing to pair his excellent serving with relentless aggression behind his forehand, the shot that so often in the past would let him down.After his immense mental efforts throughout this week, from the comeback five-set wins over Zizou Bergs and Grigor Dimitrov that showcased his mental toughness, to the lights-out quarter-final performance that concluded with him utterly dominating the French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli, all of the mental and emotional energy exerted by Fery seemed to finally catch up with him. He fought hard until the end, scrapping for every service game possible, but there was nothing he could do to stop this magical, historic run from gracefully running its course. - Guardian