Wimbledon Day 9: Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner roll into semifinals

While there were two major upsets in women's singles at Wimbledon on Tuesday, it was straight chalk on the men's side. No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 8 seed Jannik Sinner advanced to the semifinals

Andrey Rublev, the No. 7 seed, came as close as anyone has to beating Djokovic at a major this year. He actually took a set off Djokovic and almost took a second one. But almost doesn't count. He threw everything he had at Djokovic, but it simply wasn't enough. Djokovic reigned supreme, as he has essentially all year, beating Rublev 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

It's probably no consolation to him, but Rublev should feel good about how he played against Djokovic, who has been practically unbeatable this year. When play started, Djokovic seemed wholly unprepared for Rublev to fight so hard. It took him awhile to warm up, as it sometimes can, but in the process he lost the first set to a lively Rublev.

Djokovic has been on a tear this year, but he's human and still makes mistakes. However, he has an extra gear he can shift into that is unavailable to most humans. To see that extra gear in process, all you need to do is watch the second set of this match. Djokovic absolutely dominated Rublev, who won just a single game.

Rublev recovered well, forcing Djokovic to work hard in the third set. Of course, that meant Rublev had to work hard, too. He fought to stay in the set, fending off three break points to get back on serve and tie the set 4-4. Unfortunately for Rublev, all that work ended up being for nothing as Djokovic won the final two games. The fourth set was massively entertaining, but Rublev couldn't find the edge he had in the first set and eventually had to bow to Djokovic's prowess.

No matter how well Djokovic does on the court, it still gets to him that he's rarely the target of the crowd's spontaneous cheers. On Tuesday, he got pointy with the crowd when they loudly supported Rublev while giving him a tepid reception. He forgets that tennis crowds love underdogs. Djokovic is a lot of things, but an underdog is not one of them, and unless something dramatically changes, he may not be one ever again.

Somehow, one of the greatest tennis players of all time will have to accept that the frontrunner isn't always the crowd's first choice. That's easy to digest compared to what Rublev had to deal with Tuesday, which is being the first man in the Open Era to lose his first eight Grand Slam quarterfinals.

Jannik Sinner strides into first Grand Slam semis

Jannik Sinner, who is just 21 years old, swung his way into his first Grand Slam semifinal Tuesday, defeating Roman Safiullin of Russia 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Sinner was his typical self for the most part, his long limbs giving him full run of the court and a special ability to return shots.

It under-credits Sinner to say that all he needed to do to make it this far was not choke, but he had the luckiest of draws. His path to the semifinals didn't include a single player ranked higher than No. 79.

All he had to do was play his game, and that's what he's done. Now he's the third Italian man to make it to the Wimbledon semifinals, and for at least one more day, he'll be the youngest man to make the Wimbledon semis since 2007. Until 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz plays on Wednesday, of course.