Novak Djokovic hits back at claims of Australian Open 'advantage' after battling past Taylor Fritz

But Djokovic was still able to book his place in the semis of the competition with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 triumph.

In his post-match press conference, the 36-year-old was asked whether he'd have an advantage in the last four.

That's because Djokovic will have a few more hours of rest than Jannik Sinner or Andrey Rublev, with the world No 1 due to face the winner of that match.

Sinner vs Rublev is set to roll on until the early hours of the morning.

But a furious Djokovic has now suggested that won't be the case, insisting no such advantage exists.

"What kind of advantage will I have? We have two days," he said.

"It's not much of an advantage that I see there.

"We are playing semifinals on Friday, so plenty of time for whoever wins that match tonight to recover.

"Scheduling has become a hot topic, so to say.

"We talked about it, I think few matches ago I talked about it on the press conference, and I couldn't give a really clear answer to that, because, I mean, it's really up to Grand Slams and our respective tours to think about the ways to accommodate both male and female players in a proper way so we have no late finishes.

"If you are scheduling two matches starting at 12:00 with men playing best-of-five, if it goes three, four hours, takes for them I think, whatever, 45 minutes to clean the stadium, bringing new fans for the night session, so it takes a lot of time, you know.

"Coco Gauff played a long match today. I played a very long match today.

"Then you have the night session starting two hours after they were scheduled, after the time they were scheduled."

Djokovic, on how the scheduling can be improved, added: "Maybe scheduling less matches on the centre court, doing it in one session, which is most likely not going to happen, because every session carries a lot of economical value for them.

"So of course they are going to communicate it and try it that way and try to get as many people for different sessions.

"And TV broadcasting, there's a lot of elements that are in play, you know.

"TV broadcasting pays a lot of money to the tournament and sponsors the tournament.

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"So obviously, you know, in the end of the day, they are the ones drawing the line and saying, you know, we want to see this player at that session or etc, etc."

Djokovic is now just two victories away from winning a record 25th Grand Slam crown.

But he said after his win over Fritz that the victory had left him physically and emotionally drained.

"I suffered a lot the first couple of sets and also due to his high quality tennis," he admitted.

"He was serving he was suffocating me from the back of the court. I was really struggling to find the right timing.

"It was extremely hot, physically very draining, emotionally as well.

"Huge round of applause for Fritz for a great performance today – he is playing amazing tennis."

Djokovic has won 10 Australian Open titles so far, with his first coming all the way back in 2008.

He is the defending champion this year having beaten Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final 12 months ago.