Novak Djokovic was standing on the brink of his 35th Grand Slam final and ninth at Wimbledon on Friday as Carlos Alcaraz aimed to book his spot in a blockbuster championship showdown.
Djokovic, chasing a record-equalling eighth title at the All England Club and 24th major, tackles beanpole Italian Jannik Sinner in the day’s opening semi-final on Centre Court.
World number one Alcaraz faces mercurial Daniil Medvedev as the 20-year-old US Open winner eyes a place in his first Wimbledon final.
A win over Sinner would hand Djokovic another record in a career packed with landmarks as it would make him the only player to feature in 35 Grand Slam finals.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but of course I would consider myself favourite,” said the 36-year-old.
Djokovic is very much the senior citizen of the semi-finals.
He is nine years older than Medvedev, 15 years the senior of Sinner and he has a 16-year head-start on Alcaraz.
When Djokovic won the first of his 23 majors at the Australian Open in 2008, the Spaniard was still three months shy of his fifth birthday.
Twelve months ago, Sinner was two sets up on Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarter-finals before the Serb came through in five.
During his current 33-match win streak at the tournament, only two other men have taken him to five sets — Rafael Nadal in the 2018 semi-finals and Roger Federer in the epic 2019 final.
When asked how he was planning to defeat Djokovic for the first time, the eighth-ranked Sinner said: “First of all, you have to go up two sets to love.
“It’s going to be a completely different match than last year. He knows me better, as I know him better also.”
Although Djokovic and Alcaraz are still a match away from a Sunday title clash, there is already tension in the air.
Djokovic called for more privacy at the tournament in response to being filmed by Alcaraz’s father during a training session.
The Spanish star laughed off any hint of tennis espionage.
“My father is a huge fan of tennis,” he said after his impressive straight sets win over Holger Rune in the quarter-finals.
“He doesn’t only watch my matches. I think he gets into the club at 11:00 am, gets out at 10:00 pm, watching matches, watching practice from everyone.
“Being able to watch Djokovic in real life, yeah, probably it is true he’s filmed the sessions.”
However, he added: “I have a lot of videos from Djokovic on every platform. I think it’s not an advantage for me.”
Alcaraz managed just seven games in a straight sets loss to Medvedev when they met in the second round of Wimbledon in 2021.
Both men are in the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the first time and they have captured a season-leading five titles each in 2023.
The 27-year-old Medvedev hasn’t faced a seeded opponent at this year’s Wimbledon, a welcome relief for a man who had never previously gotten past the last 16.
He didn’t get the chance to improve on that in 2022 as all Russian players were banned from Wimbledon in response to the war in Ukraine.
“I always said I want to be here, I want to play. Wimbledon is an amazing tournament,” said former US Open champion Medvedev.
“I wanted to do well because it was my worst Grand Slam. Never managed to get into the flow here to make it click.
“So I was just disappointed last year that I didn’t have this opportunity to try to prove to myself that I can go far in Wimbledon.”
READ: Pakistan’s squad for Hockey Asian Champions Trophy announced