World No.1 Jannik Sinner made it to his second Wimbledon semifinal after beating America’s Ben Shelton in straight sets at Court No.1 on Wednesday. The Italian registered a 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 win in two hours and 19 minutes.
The top seed won the first set in the tiebreaker but was soon broken early in the second set by the leftie. However, Sinner was able to get back his break in the fourth game of the second set.
Sinner then broke Shelton’s serve in the 10th game of the second set to take a 2-0 lead. The Italian once again broke Shelton’s serve in the 10th game of the third set to advance to the last four of the tournament.
“I’m very, very happy about today’s performance,” said Sinner in his on-court interview. “Playing against him is so difficult. You have chances and then he serves very well, as we saw in the last game. Overall, we play each other more and more, we got to know each other a little bit better, and I’m looking forward to these kinds of battles.”
Sinner had suffered an elbow injury after he had slipped in the round of 16 clash against Grigor Dimitrov but didn’t show any serious pain while playing against Shelton.
“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,” said Sinner, who only practised for a short stint indoors on Tuesday, when asked about how his arm had held up against Shelton. “It has improved a lot from yesterday to today.
“Yesterday my day was very short on the practice court, 20 minutes with the coaches only. But I [was] looking forward to [the match]. This is no excuse. There is no better stage to play tennis, and I think I showed this today.”
Sinner had lost the 2023 Wimbledon semifinal against Novak Djokovic and he will once again face the Serbian at the same stage of the tournament.
“I remember the first time playing on Centre Court. I remember my first time playing semi-finals here, and it’s very special,” recalled Sinner, when asked how he had changed since 2023. “I’m of course looking forward to it, but on the other hand, especially when you are young — 20, 22, 23, 24 — one year makes such a difference because you get to big stages more and get used to it.
“Obviously it feels amazing. Wimbledon is the most special tournament we have throughout the calendar. Being here again at the last four means a lot to me and hopefully it’s going to be a good match.”
