Mumbai, July 12 -- Novak Djokovic prophesied the Wimbledon finalist. Not from his own battle to become one, but from the other. "If I want to at least go a step further, I have to beat the No.1 in the world, and then eventually play Alcaraz in the final," he said after his quarter-final. The statement is less a reflection of the odds of Taylor Fritz beating Carlos Alcaraz in Djokovic's mind, and more of how deeply hardwired Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz are in it right now. Partly because of what they have done to the 24-time Grand Slam champion. The Serb's most recent memory of Sinner, from this year's French Open semi-final, was a straight-sets loss. His most recent Wimbledon memory of Alcaraz, from last year's final, was a straight-sets loss. In both, he was largely outplayed, a term seldom used to describe a Djokovic defeat. While Alcaraz, whom he has since beaten twice, may or may not be for later, Sinner is now. And if that 25th major has to happen for the 38-year-old, the time to step up against his two younger nemesis is now. Djokovic knows that. "It's going to take the best of me at the moment to beat Jannik," he said. Good thing for him - it's Jannik on grass and at Wimbledon, as opposed to literally anywhere else. That's where the Italian's physical, mental and statistical edge over the Serb gets balanced out. From the 5-4 advantage that the current world No.1 carries over the former world No.1, it has been one-way traffic towards sublime Sinner station in the previous four run-ins, dating back to late 2023. Djokovic has won all of two sets in them. None of these matches, though, came on grass. In the two that did, Djokovic knocked Sinner out from the 2022 quarter-final and 2023 semi-final of Wimbledon. "I've never won against (Djokovic) here at Wimbledon, so it's going to be a very, very tough challenge," Sinner said. The 23-year-old hard-court machine isn't quite a finished product yet on grass, still learning to live with the vagaries of the surface. He hasn't won a semi-final at Wimbledon. Djokovic hasn't lost a semi-final at Wimbledon since 2012. Over the next decade, he kissed his peak and six of his seven Wimbledon trophies. This 38-year-old isn't the same as that in terms of movement and weapons, which showed in his loss to Alcaraz last year. Yet, his craft on grass remains skilled enough and smart enough to trouble loyal baseliners, which Sinner is. Sinner can out-hit Djokovic to submission from the baseline on hard and clay courts. On grass it will take something stunningly special to do that, even by Sinner's sometimes surreal standards. Djokovic's most pressing concern, therefore, is more staying locked with the youngster for five sets, if required, than tackling his game on grass. "Game-wise, the way I'm feeling the ball when I'm fit and ready, I feel like I can go toe-to-toe with these guys, and even beat them if I'm playing my best," said Djokovic, bringing up, again, both Sinner and Alcaraz. The physical question will be asked of both players. Djokovic suffered what looked like a nasty fall in the final moments of his win against Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday before he quickly served his way out of the match. The Serb later said the issue did not seem too serious, but would have to be monitored over the couple of days. Sinner's right elbow too needed monitoring, after it affected him in the Round of 16 in which he fell in the first game and slipped to a two-set deficit before Grigor Dimitrov retired. It held up just fine against Ben Shelton in the quarter-final , where he was back to sizzling from the baseline and serving high quality (he won 89% points on the first serve). That serve will remain critical for Sinner. One of the big factors in his recent dominance over Djokovic has been a clinical first strike. At the Australian Open semi-final and Shanghai Masters final last year, Djokovic did not have a single break point opportunity on the Sinner serve. In this year's French Open semi-final, Sinner had finer numbers on serve than his opponent....