Carlos Alcaraz will have to wait to complete his full set of Grand Slam titles after 37-year-old ironman Novak Djokovic stopped him in his tracks in a late-night thriller that finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

After all the pre-match hype, Alcaraz and Djokovic delivered some quite mind-boggling tennis before the super Serb wrapped up a 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 victory to move into his 12th Australian Open semifinal.

The result puts Djokovic just two wins away from a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam singles title.

After the Serb had disappeared for a medical timeout for treatment to what looked like a groin injury late in the first set, we were left wondering whether the 10-time AO champion would even finish the match.

But after fighting through the second set to level the match, Djokovic somehow found the reserves to survive numerous energy-sapping baseline exchanges to start to turn the contest in his favour.

The rally the two men produced when Djokovic stood at break point to go up 5-2 in the fourth set was one for the ages, 33 shots of pure quality.

Djokovic finished off the world No.3 after three hours and 37 minutes before enjoying a celebratory embrace with new coach Andy Murray courtside.

“One of the most epic matches I’ve played on this court – on any court really – so thank you all for staying at 1am to watch us,” Djokovic told the crowd.

The former world No.1 is back on Friday to face second seed Alexander Zverev for a place in Sunday’s final after the German had earlier beaten American Tommy Paul.

Zverev’s 7-6(1) 7-6(0) 2-6 6-1 scoreline doesn’t quite tell the full story though, after Paul served for both the first and second sets and missed set points in both.

“I should’ve been down two sets to love,” admitted Zverev afterwards.

Like Alcaraz, young American Coco Gauff will have to wait for a first Australian Open title after Spain’s Paula Badosa ended the third seed’s hopes on Day 10.

Former world No.2 Badosa, who came close to quitting the sport with a chronic back injury, made it third time lucky in Grand Slam quarterfinals by beating the 20-year-old 7-5 6-4, and will return to the top 10 after the tournament.

In her first Grand Slam semifinal, Badosa will take on two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, who survived her sternest Melbourne Park test for some time.

The world No.1 was completely outplayed at times by former Roland-Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who blasted her way through the second set to become the first player to take a set off Sabalenka in Melbourne since her 2023 final.

It was only once the top seed broke for 5-3 in the decider that it felt like she was finally out of danger, serving out a 6-2 2-6 6-3 victory to move into her third successive AO semifinal.

There was a big upset in the men’s doubles when top seeds and world No.1s Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo crashed out in the quarterfinals.

Last year’s Roland-Garros champions were taken down by the Swedish-Dutch team of Andre Goransson and Sem Verbeek 6-4 4-6 6-3.