Jannik Sinner ‘takes action’ after awkward Novak Djokovic situation | Tennis | Sport

Jannik Sinner reportedly avoided Novak Djokovic on the practise courts at Wimbledon after making a late change ahead of their semi-final. While Arthur Fery has captured the hearts of Centre Court, the duo are still set for the showpiece match at SW19 on Friday.

But, having dispatched Jan-Lennard Struff in straight sets, while his Serbian rival played out an exhausting five against Felix Auger-Aliassime, Sinner is still not taking any chances in the build-up. The top seed appears to want to withhold any secrets he has left against his 39-year-old opponent, whom he ruthlessly defeated at the same stage 12 months ago.

With Djokovic practising on court one, Sinner was supposed to train alongside him on court two. However, according to Serbian outlet Sportel, the Italian then swapped courts to number four in order to avoid Djokovic.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner trained under the watchful eye of Viktor Troicki, and with doubles player Mark Polmans, who featured in the mixed doubles final alongside Storm Hunter, to face Jelena Ostapenko and Marcelo Arevalo.

Despite a taxing quarter-final match, Djokovic trained for an hour. Recovery will be just as crucial for the veteran star.

“It was honestly one of the best matches I was part of on this court in my career,” he said following his win over Auger-Aliassime.

“I have no energy left… right now it’s all business I still have to recover, I’m still in the tournament and I have the best player in the world in a few days time.”

“Sinner is number one right now and the best player in the world, and that kind of continuity and consistency he has in his results is really remarkable,” he added.

Sinner believes he will face a difficult task regardless. The Italian has strung together a number of wins over Djokovic, but believes that the conditions at Wimbledon add additional problems.

“With Novak, I feel like every match is different,” the four-time major champion said. “Even when I had this small streak with him, I felt like every match really has its own story.

“Especially when you play on a surface like this, if you have a bad serving day or [you’re] not feeling the ball very well, it’s going to be very, very tough.

“He has won this tournament so many times and he knows exactly how to approach it. I’m looking forward to it. In any case, I’m happy to be back in the semis. I’m happy to fight for every ball, then we’ll see.”