Sinner ended Serbia’s Djokovic’s 33-match winning streak in Melbourne, and Djokovic suffered his first loss since 2018.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion wanted to surpass Margaret Court in the record book of all-time major victories.
“Playing this way is not a very pleasant feeling,” 36-year-old Djokovic remarked.
“But at the same time, credit to [Sinner] for doing everything better than me in every aspect of the game.”
Despite the four-set loss, Djokovic, who will continue to hold the top spot in the men’s world rankings, had one of his greatest seasons ever last year, winning three of the four major championships
However, during the previous two weeks at Melbourne Park, he hardly played at the same level and appeared totally out of sorts against Italian fourth seed Sinner.
Compared to 32 winners, Djokovic committed 54 unintentional errors and failed to generate a single break point.
“I would like to congratulate Sinner on an excellent match and an excellent tournament thus far. It is right that he is in the final. He totally outplayed me,” said Djokovic.
“I was unpleasantly surprised by my level. In the first two sets, I wasn’t doing too well at all.
“I guess this is one of the worst Grand Slam matches I’ve ever played.”
