(Football news) While Djokovic extended Andrey Rublev’s quarterfinal losing streak to new heights in Melbourne, the Italian broke through Fritz in four sets to continue his incredible winning run. 

Before Tuesday’s match in the intense Melbourne heat of the quarterfinals, Djokovic had won all eight of his prior ATP Tour matches against American 12th seed Fritz, and the 24-time Grand Slam champion was not going to allow his 100% record to end in the ninth attempt.

Fritz survived an astounding 15 break points before the holder converted his 16th opening to win 7-6[3] 4-6 6-2 6-3, with the help of a suspected foot ailment to his opponent. Djokovic’s merciless streak bedeviled him in the first two sets against Fritz.

Flaunting his improved service game, Djokovic edged Fritz on the aces counter with 20 compared to the American’s 16 and produced 49 winners to advance to his 11th Australian Open semi-final, which usually only means one thing for the Serbian.

Indeed, Djokovic -who is on a 33-match winning streak in the opening Grand Slam of the year, the joint-best streak alongside Monica Seles – has never been knocked out of the Australian Open in the final four and has gone on to clinch Melbourne glory on each of the previous 10 occasions where he has advanced to the semi-finals.

In fact, it has been nearly five years since Djokovic last lost in the semi-final of any Grand Slam tournament, being dumped out of the 2019 French Open at this stage by Dominic Thiem, but the 36-year-old will no doubt face his toughest challenge of the year so far against a foe who knows a thing or two about beating Djokovic on hard courts.

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