‘How am I going to stop him?’: Novak Djokovic ready for Jannik Sinner, opens up on French Open semi-final game plan

Novak Djokovic is set to face Jannik Sinner in their French Open 2025 semi-final fixture, at the Philippe-Chatrier court on Friday. For Djokovic, he will be featuring in his 51st Grand Slam semi-final in his hunt for a 25th Major victory. Sinner, on the other hand, has been utterly dominant at Roland Garros this year, and has not dropped his serve his opener vs Arthur Rinderknech. Novak Djokovic will face Jannik Sinner on Friday.(REUTERS)

The Italian also has 19 consecutive wins at Grand Slams, including title triumphs at the 2024 US Open and 2025 Australian Open.

‘I know what to expect from Jannik’

Speaking ahead of the match, Djokovic said, “I know what to expect from Jannik.”

“He's going to come out and play at a very high level, as he did basically every tournament that he played in the last year and a half. I don't expect anything less from him. But these kind of match-ups and challenges extract the best out of me. Playing best-of-five, late stages of a grand slam against No 1 in the world, you can't get more motivated than that for me at this age.

“That's how I see it now. How am I going to stop him? I don't think about that. I think about how am I going to execute what I want on the court and feel how I want to feel. That's where my thoughts are going,” he added.

The Serbian has also been in good form, and he rolled back the years in his quarter-final win vs Alexander Zverev on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the match, Sinner said, “He has shown now in the last period that he is back to the level. He plays very, very well, so it's going to be quite tactical but very, very difficult. He's such an experienced player - 24 grand slams, I think that says everything.”

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