Djokovic into Aussie semis; Gauff faces Sabalenka next
By The Associated Press
Nobody has ever been better at this end of the Australian Open than Novak Djokovic, the 10-time champion.
Every time he’s won a quarterfinal at Melbourne Park — as he did against Taylor Fritz on Tuesday — he’s gone on to win the title.
The odds are usually stacked against his semifinal rival. Perhaps even more so against fourthseeded Jannik Sinner, who won a quarterfinal over No. 5 Andrey Rublev that didn’t start until 10:42 p.m. and didn’t finish until 1:21 a.m. Wednesday.
Djokovic reached his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semifinal by beating Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3 3/4 hours. Their match started late in the heat of the afternoon because U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff’s preceding win over Marta Kostyuk took more than three hours.
The start of the night session was pushed back past 9 p.m. and could have gone very, very late if not for women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka and Sinner both winning in straight sets.
Sinner was down 5-1 in the second-set tiebreaker before winning six straight points, starting with a stunning crosscourt forehand, to turn momentum and take the match 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Since losing to Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals, Sinner has won two of his three matches against the 24-time major champion.
Sinner hasn’t dropped a set yet.
Djokovic, meanwhile, has spent more time on court through five rounds than ever at Melbourne Park — more than 15 hours — but thinks he’s still building into it. He’s on a 33-match winning streak at the Australian Open — a tournament record he shares with his childhood inspiration, Monica Seles.
■ Gauff hopes she’s got her “bad” match out of the way at the Australian Open before meeting defending champion Sabalenka in the semifinals.
It’ll be a rematch of the U.S. Open final, which the 19-year-old Gauff won in three sets for her first major title.
Gauff is on a 12-match winning roll at the majors after rallying from 5-1 down in the first set to beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2 in a quarterfinal that lasted more than three hours.
Sabalenka is on a 12-match streak at Melbourne Park after her 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 9-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in the first match of the night session.
Embiid, Towns produce epic night
Joel Embiid scored 70 points in Philadelphia. Karl-anthony Towns had 62 in Minnesota. The elite big men paired up to do something the NBA hadn’t seen on the same day in more than 45 years.
So, mark it down: Jan. 22, 2024, was a day unlike almost any other in NBA history.
On the 18th anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game for the Lakers — the second-best scoring game in NBA history — Embiid and Towns put on a pair of dazzling, historic scoring shows of their own with a pair of career-high, franchise-record efforts.
“From the time I started playing, Kobe was my guy,” Embiid said. “He’s the reason why I started playing basketball. It’s funny, on the same night, he got 81 and that was my favorite player.”
Embiid’s 70 points set the 76ers record in Philadelphia’s
133-123 win over San Antonio. Towns scored 62 points — two more than his previous career best and Wolves record — but it wasn’t enough in Minnesota’s 128-125 loss to Charlotte.
Add it all up, and Monday was the fourth day in NBA history when two players scored at least 60 points. The others were April 9, 1978, (David Thompson had 73 for Denver, George Gervin had 63 for San Antonio as they dueled on the season’s final day for the scoring title), Jan. 17, 1962, (Jerry West scored 63 for the Lakers, Wilt Chamberlain scored 62 for the Philadelphia Warriors) and Dec. 8, 1961 (Chamberlain had 78 for the Warriors and Elgin Baylor had 63 for the Lakers in a triple-overtime game against each other).
Embiid’s 70-point night tied the 12th-biggest scoring effort in NBA history.
■Milwaukee fired Adrian Griffin as coach on Tuesday after just 43 games despite having one of the league’s top records midway through his first season. Joe Prunty will serve as the Bucks’ interim head coach.
■ Cleveland backup center Tristan Thompson has been suspended 25 games without pay by the NBA for violating the league’s antidrug policy, a penalty that will keep him out of the rotation and off the floor for two months.
Angels sign reliever Robert Stephenson
Right-handed reliever Robert Stephenson agreed to a $33 million, three-year contract with the Angels. Stephenson, 30, had an impressive finish last season with Tampa Bay, where he adjusted his slider into a faster, a more dangerous pitch after joining the Rays in a trade last June. He will get a salary of $11 million annually from the Angels.
Nick Dunlap to skip PGA at Torrey Pines
Nick Dunlap, who became the first amateur in 33 years to win on the PGA Tour when he won last week at La Quinta, will not play this week’s PGA Tour stop at Torrey Pines. Dunlap said in a statement that he would skip the Farmers Insurance Open — which begins today and runs through Saturday — and planned to return home to Alabama.
Grandstands opened for Colisuem Clash
NASCAR backtracked on its plan to close the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum grandstands for the first day of on-track activity for the upcoming Clash on the very same day the shutdown was announced, said Ben Kennedy, the architect of NASCAR’S race in the storied venue.
NASCAR last Tuesday revealed the Coliseum would not be open to the public on Feb. 3, the first time this year its Cup cars will be on track. Only problem? NASCAR overhauled the schedule for this third running of the Busch Lite Clash at the Coliseum and that day is a full day of track activity.
Fans were furious — many claimed they assumed one ticket covered both days — and in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Kennedy said NASCAR immediately looked for a solution. NASCAR’S senior vice president of racing development and strategy said he was on the phone with the Coliseum staff by Wednesday morning and on Thursday evening he’d posted a “We heard you” video on social media announcing the grandstands will be open, after all, and free to the public.