MELBOURNE – He made unforced errors, vented his frustrations at his team in his box, and crumbled when leading 5-1 in the first set. But nobody would have written Novak Djokovic off, especially when he did not doubt himself at all.

The Serb did not get off to the best of starts in his Australian Open semi-final on Friday, but he recovered and surged into a 10th final to close in on a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam crown, with only Stefanos Tsitsipas now standing in his way.

The nine-time Melbourne Park champion overcame his early wobble to romp past unseeded American Tommy Paul 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena in style.

Another title on Sunday will move the fourth seed alongside Rafael Nadal with 22 Grand Slam wins and see the 35-year-old return to world No. 1 for the first time since last June.

Greek third seed Tsitsipas, who battled past Russian 18th seed Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in the other semi-final, can also become the top-ranked player should he lift the trophy.

Djokovic played the match without his father Srdjan courtside after he was filmed posing with a man holding a Russian flag featuring Vladimir Putin’s face following his son’s quarter-final win on Wednesday.

The incident sparked a backlash from Ukraine and led to calls for Srdjan to be banned from the tournament.

Srdjan, 62, issued a statement ahead of the semi-final saying he would stay away, insisting he “wishes only for peace” and never wanted to cause “disruption”.

There was an empty seat next to his mother Dijana throughout the 2hr 20min semi-final.

“I’m really thankful I have enough gas in my legs to play at this level on one of the biggest tennis courts in the world,” said Djokovic, who is now 11-0 for the season and into a 33rd Slam final.

“I’m not as fresh as the beginning of the tournament but we put in a lot of hours in the off-season on fitness in order to be in a good condition to play best of five (sets).

“I know what’s expected of me, I’ve been in this situation so many times in my career. Experience helps also.”

He added that the images and video of his father with fans holding Russian flags had been misinterpreted and he hopes Srdjan can attend the Australian Open final.

“It was unfortunate, the misinterpretation of what happened has escalated to such a high level,” Djokovic, who was deported from Australia in 2022 due to his unvaccinated status, said.

“My father, my whole family have been through several wars. As my father put in the statement, we are against the war. We will never support any violence or war.

“The photo... I heard what he said (in the video) and it was ‘cheers’. Unfortunately some media has interpreted that in a really wrong way (saying that it’s ‘Long live Russia’).”

The win extended his unbeaten streak at the Australian Open to 27 matches to claim sole ownership of the Open-era record at Melbourne Park ahead of Andre Agassi.

Djokovic had never played the 25-year-old Paul before and said he was wary of a “very explosive, very dynamic player”.

The Serb was 5-1 ahead in the first set when a run-in with the umpire over using his towel between points seemed to rattle him, and he was broken twice in a row as Paul came surging back to 5-5.

Djokovic regrouped to hold serve and break again and take the set in 59 minutes. After that wobble, it was all business, despite clutching his strapped hamstring several times, romping through the next two sets with minimal resistance.

He will meet Tsitsipas, who is also unbeaten this season with a 10-0 record, next after the Greek reached his first Australian final and only second at a Grand Slam.

At Roland Garros in 2021, he fell to Djokovic in five sets after holding a 2-0 lead. At 24, Tsitsipas is the youngest man to reach the Melbourne final since a 23-year-old Djokovic did so in 2011.

Meanwhile, Indian trailblazer Sania Mirza bowed out of Grand Slam tennis on Friday with defeat in the mixed-doubles final playing alongside Rohan Bopanna – her first playing partner 22 years ago.

Mirza, 36, and Bopanna, 42, lost 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 to Brazilian pair Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos. AFP