Just two men stand to foil Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s pursuit of a 15-year first at Melbourne Park on Friday when the top four seeds square off in the semifinals of Australian Open 2026.
Not since Novak Djokovic denied Rafael Nadal for three of the four Slams from Wimbledon 2011 to Roland Garros 2012 have two rivals contested four successive major finals between them.
It is heady company to keep for the fearless Spaniard and the undeviating Italian, and a nod to the dominance of the current duo that no pretender has been up to the job of stopping either since Djokovic himself at last year’s Australian Open.
MORE: AO 2026 men's singles draw
Former Grand Slam champions and world No.1s Lleyton Hewitt, Pat Rafter and Marat Safin told ausopen.com it would be no mean feat stopping the world’s top two from booking a maiden Australian Open showdown on Sunday.
In the AO 2025 quarterfinals, 10-time champion Djokovic stunned Alcaraz in arguably his finest showing of a body-preserving, though often injury-plagued, season.
Testament to his longevity, the 38-year-old Serbian is again one of the two men tasked with preventing a first Australian Open final between six-time major winner Alcaraz and the four-time Slam champion, Sinner.
Djokovic meets his 24-year-old Melbourne Park successor of the past two years, Sinner, for a shot at an unprecedented 11th final in his most successful city, while last year’s finalist, third seed Alexander Zverev, hopes to wind back the clock to repeat his upset of Alcaraz in the quarterfinals from two years ago.
“He's got the experience on his side. He knows how to handle the big situation, so that's something that’s not going to worry him,” Hewitt said of Djokovic.
“I think keeping his body and mind fresh and, you know, he's played limited time on court so far, which I think plays into his hands as well to give him a shot.
“He's made the semifinals of all four majors last year, so he is not far away. He's knocking on the door still, and it's incredible what he's doing. Obviously though those top two guys are hard to beat for anyone, and Novak at his age now as well.”
Djokovic struck luck twice already this week with a walkover against 16th seed Jakub Mensik in the fourth round before fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti retired with a leg injury while leading two sets to love in the quarterfinals. He would need to beat the second seed – who crushed eighth seed Ben Shelton in the last eight – for the first time since the 2023 ATP Finals.
Sinner has claimed six of the pair’s 10 meetings and stands to become the first man to beat the former No.1 six times in a row. Victory over the Serbian in last year’s Roland Garros semifinals made him just the third player after Roger Federer and Nadal to have beaten him on all three surfaces at the Slams.
After reaching his third Grand Slam final at Rod Laver Arena a year ago, Zverev did not pass the quarterfinals at any of the remaining three majors for the first time 2019.
Juggling injuries, the player widely regarded as the best not to have raised a major trophy still managed to finish the year at world No.3.
Four of his five matches at AO 2026 have gone to four sets, including over Learner Tien in the quarterfinals, but the 28-year-old German has claimed half his encounters with world No.1 Alcaraz.
In his fifth campaign and in pursuit of the career Grand Slam, Alcaraz has not dropped a set, including over sixth seed Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals.
Rafter laid out just how tall an order it was to beat the Spaniard in his current form.
“I always thought a year or two ago, he sort of had some fluctuations in his mental game. He didn't seem to work the match out very well,” Rafter said.
“He just relied on his great ball striking and heavy hitting to win, and he used to go up and down a little bit.
“He just seems so much more consistent now, and so much stronger. He's probably matured mentally, so yeah, that's pretty scary for a lot of the players out there. He's developing, he's evolving.”
A champion at Melbourne Park in 2005 when he broke Australian hearts with victory over Hewitt in the final, Safin – a co-coach of Andrey Rublev – has seen plenty of Alcaraz at his formidable best.
In a concerning prospect for Zverev, the 22-year-old top seed has the added benefit of youth on his side as he closes in on history.
“I think he's done pretty well everywhere – physically and mentally. I mean, he's young, hungry, everything is coming kind of easy,” Safin said of Alcaraz.
“You can see that he's enjoying. This is the most important part when you're playing tennis, to enjoy, and probably it's the youth also.
“When you're young and you're ambitious and everything is interesting and new, it's easy to embrace [pressure].”