Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev will face each other in Sunday’s Australian Open final.

Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev will battle for the Australian Open trophy (Image: Getty)

The Australian Open final is wide open after Novak Djokovic’s shock defeat against Jannik Sinner on Friday morning. Sinner will battle for his first Grand Slam triumph with Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne on Sunday.

The Italian has reached a major final for the first time and will receive a huge windfall if he overcomes Medvedev. Both players have already earned 526,940 ($669,735) just for reaching the semi-final stage.

A total of £44m ($57m) was made available in prize money for this year’s Australian Open. It is claimed to be a 113 per-cent increase on last year’s tournament.

Sunday’s winner will take home a cool £1,676,608 ($2,130,975) by ending up victorious at the Rod Laver Arena. The runner-up will earn £918,143 ($1,166,963)

Sinner overcame Djokovic in four sets, limiting the Serb’s momentum after he won the third set to make it 2-1. The 22-year-old took advantage of a surprisingly poor display by Djokovic.

Jannik Sinner will attempt to win his first Grand Slam in the Australian Open final (Image: Getty)

“It was a very, very tough match,” Sinner said in his on-court interview. “For two sets, I felt like he was not feeling that great so I just tried to keep pushing.

“In the third set, I had match point and I missed a forehand, but this is tennis. I just tried to be ready for the next set, which I started off really well. And obviously the atmosphere was so great to play here.”

Meanwhile, Medvedev battled back from two sets down against Alexander Zverev. He won two consecutive tiebreakers before killing off his opponent 6-3 in the deciding set.

Daniil Medvedev came back from 2-0 down to defeat Alexander Zverev in the semi-final (Image: Getty)

Medvedev admits that not even he believed he was ‘capable’ of such displays of mental strength before the Australian Open. He heads into his third final at the tournament, having also reached the showdown in 2021 and 20221, but remains in search of his first title.

“Mentally 100 per cent, I’m stronger than I was before this tournament because now I know that I’m capable of some things maybe I thought I’m not. Because before I didn’t do anything like this to get to the final,” the 27-year-old said.

“Mentally I’m stronger than before and I’m happy about it. Probably honestly, it’s better to be in the final winning three-set, four-set matches. That’s the better way physically. But it is what it is, and I’m proud and looking forward to the final to give 100 per cent again.”