World No.1 Jannik Sinner will take on Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon semifinal at Centre Court on Friday. This will be the 14th semifinal at SW19 for Djokovic, whereas it will be the second appearance for Sinner in the semifinal of the tournament.

These two had met at the same stage of the championships in 2023 in which Djokovic had won in straight sets. But since then, the Italian has taken giant strides at the top level.

Djokovic and Sinner recently met each other in the Roland Garros semifinal, in which the latter won in straight sets. Sinner has had his wood on Djokovic in the last few encounters and would want to carry his good show.

Meanwhile, Sinner had suffered a blow to his elbow during the round of 16 clash against Grigor Dimitrov but showed no signs of any discomfort during his quarterfinal match against Ben Shelton.

“Yesterday I played 20 minutes without serving and not hitting 100 per cent,” Sinner said after his two-hour, 19-minute victory. “But in the other way, I always try to put myself in the position to at least go out there and try. I had quite good feelings in the warm-up today, so I put into my mind that I’m going to play today. The concerns were not that big if I would play or not. It was just a matter of what my percentage [was].”

On the other hand, Djokovic had also slipped awkwardly in the fourth set against Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinal clash. The Serbian said he is motivated to take on the best in the business.

“That motivates me to see how much I can still keep going with these guys toe to toe,” Djokovic said. “I lost in straight sets to Jannik in the semis of Roland Garros. I think I played a solid match. I could have played better, but he was just a better player when the moments were important. So I get another opportunity. Him next to [Carlos] Alcaraz are the leaders of tennis today, men’s tennis. I couldn’t ask for a bigger challenge for myself. I look forward to it.”

Head to Head: Matches: 9, Won by Jannik Sinner: 5, Won by Novak Djokovic: 4.