Australian Open 2024: Jannik Sinner Fights From Two Sets Down To Clinch First-Ever Grand Slam Title

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Italy's Jannik Sinner on Sunday (January 28) fought back from two sets down to defeat Danill Medevedev in the Australian Open 2024 men's singles final in Melbourne to clinch his first-ever Grand Slam title.

Fourth seed Sinner, who ousted world number 1 and 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final, defeated Medvedev by a scoreline of 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in 3 hours and 44 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park.

The 22-year-old dropped his first two sets, but finally broke Medvedev's serve in the tenth game of the third set to start the turnaround that led to his first-ever Grand Slam title.

The Italian then repeated the same in the fourth set to force the decider before sealing the match in the fifth set by breaking the Russian's serve in the sixth game.

Earmarked as the man most likely to lead the game into its next era alongside Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner has decisively proved that he can be a force for years to come.

For Medvedev, though, this is a crushing blow, with the Russian now having won only one of six grand slam finals - at the US Open in 2021 - while this is the second time in three years he has led by two sets to love here only to lose.

The first of those came against Rafael Nadal in 2022 but, even without the Spaniard or Djokovic across the net in a final for the first time, he still could not claim the trophy.

It had been a tortuous path to get here for Medvedev, who recovered from two sets down to win against Emil Ruusuvuori at 3.39am in round two and Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals, while also needing five sets to defeat Hubert Hurkacz in the last eight, spending more than 20 hours on court.

It had been almost 20 years since an Australian Open final did not feature one of Djokovic, Nadal or Roger Federer.

Sinner's victory over Djokovic was a breakthrough moment for the 22-year-old but Medvedev immediately set about showing him that, for once, he carried the advantage of experience and knew just how to handle the occasion.

The Russian's usual tactics involve standing several metres behind the baseline and using his long levers to form the human equivalent of a brick wall.

But here, whether necessitated by fatigue, a tactical switch or a combination of the two, Medvedev stepped straight in and began swinging.

With this win, Sinner bettered his previous best of a semi-final finish in Wimbledon to land his first major title in men's singles tennis. He had previously only gotten as far as the quarter-final in the Australian Open.

Medevedev, on the other hand, lost the Australian Open for the third time, having previously suffered defeats in the title clash to Rafael Nadal in 2021 and Djokovic in 2022. This was also his third final loss in five to Sinner after losing to the Italian in Beijing and Vienna last year.

Earlier in the semi-final, Sinner had sealed the seismic 6-1 6-2 6-7(6) 6-3 victory over Djokovic without even facing a break point. Medvedev had beaten Germany's Alexander Zverev in a five-set thriller to reach the final.