Karatsev fairytale comes to an end as Djokovic storms into Australian Open final

Russia’s Aslan Karatsev lost to world number one, Novak Djokovic in their Australian Open semi-final at the Rod Laver Arena on Thursday, bringing Karatsev’s fairytale run in his first ever Grand slam to an end.

Djokovic looked back to his best as he ran out as 6-3 6-4 6-2 winner, winning the semifinal game against the world number 114 in straight sets to continue his incredible run in the Australian Open. Karatsev put up an incredible performance as he went head to head against Djokovic, who maintained his 100% winning record in Australian Open Semi-Finals. Djokovic has won 81 of his 89 matches in the Australian Open and heads into Sunday’s final against Daniil Medvedev or Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to seal his 18th career grand slam and close in on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s haul of 20.

Karatsev has seen his life change astonishingly in the last two weeks as he went from being unknown in world tennis to becoming the first man ever to reach a Grand Slam semi-final on his debut.The 27 year old, who saw off numerous top opponents including Felix Auger Aliassime, Grigor Dimitrov and Diego Schwartzmann said his greatest lesson from this year’s Australian Open was that he learned that he could compete with any player now. He will now rise to the world’s top 50 when the next rankings are released on Monday and his £475,000 earning from this tournament dwarfs his previous career total earnings.