The Italian stunned Djokovic twice in three matches at the end of last season, and yet again, his huge hitting proved to be too much for his opponent, who made an uncharacteristic number of errors on his way to a meteoric first loss at this tournament since 2018.

"It was a very, tough match," said Sinner. "I started off really well. He missed in the first two sets. I felt like he was not feeling that great on court so I just tried to keep pushing."

"Then in the third set I had match point and I missed the forehand but this is tennis. I just tried to be ready for the next set, which I started off really well."

Sinner, 22, said he felt he had learned from defeat to Djokovic in last year's Wimbledon semi-finals - the furthest he had previously gone at a Grand Slam - and had been looking forward to the match.

"I think we play really similar - you have to return as many balls as possible, he's such an incredible server," he said. "So I was just trying to push him around a little bit - I'm not going to tell you the tactics."

Sinner annihilated the Serb in the first two sets, but Djokovic battled back, snatching the third on a tiebreak after saving a match point.

However, Sinner rediscovered his touch as the errors continued to flow off the world No.1's racket, eventually winning the fourth set and ending Djokovic's 33-match unbeaten run at the Australian Open and his quest for a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam.

Remarkably, Djokovic failed to create a single break point in the match, showcasing his opponent's sheer dominance on serve.

"He outplayed me completely today," Djokovic said. "I was shocked with my level in a bad way. Not much that I was doing right... This is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I have played, that I can remember.

"At the same time, credit to him for doing everything better than me in every aspect of the game."

Sinner now has the chance to win his maiden major title, and will face either Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev in Sunday's showpiece event.