The men’s singles semifinals are on Friday in Melbourne.
The top four men in the world have advanced to Friday’s semifinals, setting up a pair of highly-anticipated matches, with combatants that share some dramatic history. In a rematch of their five-set 2024 Roland Garros championship match, World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz faces three-time Major runner-up Alexander Zverev. And two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner plays 10-time champion Novak Djokovic, who was a perfect 20-0 in Australian Open semifinals and finals until he lost to Sinner two years ago. Can Zverev and/or Djokovic prevent a fourth consecutive Major final between Alcaraz and Sinner?
Day 13 begins with the mixed doubles championship match at 12:00pm local time, featuring Olivia Gadecki and John Peers (WC) vs. Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard. The Australian wild cards are also the defending champions of this event. Peers also owns another mixed doubles Major title, as well as a men’s doubles Major title. Mladenvoic is a nine-time Major champion between women’s doubles and mixed, while this is a first Major final in the career of Guinard.
Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs. Alexander Zverev (3) – Not Before 2:30pm on Rod Laver Arena
Despite the surprising off-season breakup with longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz has avoided his habitual early round lapses, and hasn’t dropped a set through five rounds. But this will be his first true test of the fortnight, in an in-form No.3 seed who has defeated him many times in the past. This is Carlitos’ 10th Major semifinal, and his first in Melbourne. He is 7-2 in Major semis, having won his last five.
Zverev has squandered a set in four of his first five matches, yet has never appeared to be in real jeopardy of exiting this tournament. This is also his 10th Major semifinal, but he owns a much more meager record of 3-6 in this round. Sascha is 1-2 in Australian Open semifinals, with his only win coming a year ago via a Djokovic mid-match retirement.
The head-to-head in this matchup is dead even at 6-6 overall, with Zverev leading 5-3 on hard courts. They’ve split their four meetings at Majors. Two years ago in the quarterfinals of this event, Zverev won in four. A few months later in the final of Roland Garros, Alcaraz came back from two-sets-to-one down to take the title, and to prevent Zverev from becoming a Major champion. Carlitos has now claimed three of their last four meetings, which includes a 6-4, 6-3 victory last summer in Cincinnati.
Zverev will need to serve excellently to prevail, but that’s exactly what he’s been doing to this stage, striking 80 aces and only 5 double faults. However, those numbers will be extremely hard to maintain against a returner as talented as Alcaraz. And Sascha has not performed well in big matches since losing his third Major final 12 months ago in Melbourne. This is his first Major semifinal since that loss, and he went 0-3 in Masters semifinals during 2025. So Alcaraz is the favorite on Friday, though I expect this to be a rather tight semifinal.
Novak Djokovic (4) vs. Jannik Sinner (2) – Not Before 7:30pm on Rod Laver Arena
Both of these men have benefitted from some luck going their way during this tournament. Sinner was cramping badly in extreme heat during his third round match against Eliot Spizzirri, and was about to fall behind two-sets-to-one, when the roof was closed as per the heat index rule, allowing Jannik to recover and prevail in four.
Djokovic received a walkover in the fourth round from an injured Jakub Mensik, the man who beat him last March in the Miami Open final. Then in the quarterfinals, Novak was being thumped by a red-hot Lorenzo Musetti, when after winning the first two sets, the Italian was forced to retire due to injury. So Djokovic somehow reached this semifinal without winning a set in either of the last two rounds.
Outside of the Spizzirri match, Sinner has been dominant, not dropping a set. He has now won his last 26 completed hard court matches, and hasn’t lost a completed match on this surface to anyone other than Alcaraz since August of 2024. Jannik is 6-2 in Major semifinals, and has taken his last five.
This is a record-extending 54th Major semifinal for Djokovic. While he is a superb 37-16 in this round, Novak has now lost five of his last six, which includes three losses to Jannik. Djokovic hasn’t reached a Major final in over 18 months, and hasn’t won a Major in nearly two-and-a-half years.
Overall Sinner leads their head-to-head 6-4, and has won their last five encounters. Djokovic’s last victory was at the 2023 ATP Finals, and he hasn’t defeated Sinner in a best-of-five matchup since earlier that year at Wimbledon. Novak came into this event with a neck injury, and appeared to be physically struggling during the two-and-a-half sets he played on Wednesday against Musetti. Despite’s Novak’s history of success at this event, in a Major semifinal in the year 2026, Jannik is a huge favorite to extend his winning streak in Melbourne.
Friday’s full Order of Play is here.
