Novak Djokovic’s fiery message to his critics after Serbian received five-set epic towards Jannik Sinner – ‘lot of consultants needed to retire me’

Novak Djokovic produced one of the most memorable performances of his career to defeat Jannik Sinner on Friday night – and then slammed his critics for suggesting he wasn’t capable of winning a record-breaking 25th career Grand Slam.

If the Serbian superstar, 38, beats Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s final, it will be his 11th major at Melbourne Park.

Remarkably, Djokovic – the fourth seed – won his first Australian Open title in 2008.

While Djokovic dismissed talk from fellow tennis legend John McEnroe that his epic five-set win against Sinner was the best of his career, he didn’t miss the chance to call out those who doubted him.

‘I see there were a lot of experts all of a sudden who wanted to retire me, and have retired me many times the last couple of years,’ he told reporters.

‘I want to thank them all because they gave me strength, they gave me motivation to prove them wrong, which I have.

A fired-up Novak Djokovic has slammed his critics for suggesting he wasn’t capable of winning a record-breaking 25th career Grand Slam

If the Serbian, 38, beats Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s final, it will be his 11th major at Melbourne Park 

Djokovic beat Jannik Sinner in a five-set epic on Rod Laver Arena which lasted more than four hours

‘For me, it’s not a surprise, to be honest – I know what I’m capable of.’

World No.1 Alcaraz and Sinner have split the last eight major titles between them since Djokovic won his last Slam at the 2023 US Open.

With Friday’s earlier semi-final between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev running nearly five and a half hours, Djokovic’s clash with Sinner also went the distance, finishing just after 1:30am local time in Melbourne.

It leaves little time for Djokovic to recuperate before Sunday’s final, with Spanish sensation Alcaraz determined to become the youngest player ever to complete a career grand slam.

He already has six majors to his name, while Djokovic will yet again enter the record books if he can stun his younger opponent, who will start as favourite.

Both Djokovic and Aussie Margaret Court have 24 Grand Slam singles titles to their name. 

‘I cannot make any predictions right now,’ Djokovic said.

‘Definitely (I am) not going to train on Saturday. Just going to use every hour I possibly can to recover, and hopefully get out on the finals day feeling somewhat refreshed.’

The men’s final will start at 7.30pm AEDT on Sunday night, with live coverage on Channel Nine.