Clinical Sinner knocks out Shelton to book spot in Wimbledon semi-finals
The world No 1 defeated Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4. He’ll face 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the last four
Jannik Sinner, Wimbledon, 2025 © Action Plus / Psnewz
Jannik Sinner shrugged off concerns about an elbow injury to dispatch Ben Shelton and return to the semi-finals of Wimbledon, beating the tenth seed 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.
It has been a strange 48 hours for the Italian, who faced the very imminent threat of being eliminated from this year’s tournament in the last round when trailing by two sets to love against an inspired Grigor Dimitrov, only for the Bulgarian to suffer the cruellest twist of fate by rupturing a pectoral muscle to extinguish his chances.
Compounding the sense of danger for Sinner in that match was a bothersome right-elbow issue, sustained when falling in the first game of the contest.
While wearing a compression sleeve today in light of that injury, there appeared to be very little hampering Sinner in what was a clinical dissection of Shelton’s game.
serve-dominated contest edged by surgical sinner
The first set saw both players hold serve for a tiebreak, where the world No 1 elevated his level to sprint to a one-set lead.
In a serve-dominated contest, the margins of error were always going to be small, and so it proved to be the case as Sinner struck in the tenth and final games of both the second and third sets without reply to complete a thoroughly professional performance against the talented American.
“When you’re in a match with a lot of tension you try to not think about it, it has improved a lot from yesterday to today,” Sinner said of his elbow injury.
“Yesterday my day was very short on the practice court, 20 minutes with the coaches. I’m looking forward to it now, there’s no excuse, there is no better stage to play tennis and I showed this today, the atmosphere helps me so much so thanks so much for the support.
“Wimbledon is the most special tournament throughout the calendar so being again here in the last four means a lot to me and hopefully it’s going to be a good match the next one.”
Appearing in his second Wimbledon semi-final in three years, the world No 1 faces another last-four meeting with 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in what is a tantalising prospect.
