A few minutes into the long-awaited quarter-final between Jannik Sinner and Ben Shelton, the camera operators on No 1 Court had already completed their first searching look at the elaborate bandaging and long, white sleeve seemingly holding together the Italian’s fragile elbow.
In this match between the world No 1 and another of the most exciting young players in the sport, the narrative had already been set. After Sinner’s physical struggles in the previous round, all eyes rested on his elbow. He responded to those concerns with a soaring, emphatic performance, neutralising the nuclear Shelton serve as he returned to the Wimbledon semi-finals with an efficient 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 win.
Regardless of his physical concerns or the significant mental challenge of bouncing back from his defeat against Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open final, Sinner’s consistency is eternal. With this victory, the 23‑year‑old Italian is the 12th player in the open era to reach four consecutive grand slam semi-finals. Every time he steps on to the court, he is such an incredibly difficult player to beat.
From the beginning, Sinner looked entirely like himself as he put together a dominant performance, effortlessly taking care of his service games and overwhelming Shelton from the baseline with his relentless weight of shot, depth and consistency. His performance reasserted his status as a top favourite as he pursues his first Wimbledon title.
“I had quite good feelings in the warm-up today,” Sinner said. “So I felt also yesterday that mentally I have to get ready. I put into my mind that I’m going to play today. Yeah, so the concerns were not that big if I would play or not. It was just a matter of what my percentage is. Today was very high, so I’m happy.”
The buildup to this encounter had been dominated by the events on Monday in Sinner’s remarkable fourth-round win against Grigor Dimitrov. In the opening game, Sinner had slipped awkwardly and landed on his elbow. As he struggled, he was bulldozed for two sets by a supreme Dimitrov and was at serious risk of defeat. While leading 6-3, 7-5, 2-2, Dimitrov abruptly tore his pectoral muscle and was forced to retire. As Dimitrov left the court in tears, Sinner’s thoughts shifted immediately to his own injury. On Tuesday, he underwent a scan but his team chose not to disclose the results.
Fifty minutes into this quarter‑final, all doubts were gone. The two shots likely to be affected by a right elbow injury, Sinner’s serve and forehand, were devastating from the start as he shut Shelton out of his service games throughout a high-quality, serve-dominated set. At the end of it, he had struck just one unforced error and lost two points on his serve.
With the first set secured, Sinner continued to dominate his service games. In the second and third sets, Sinner threw everything at Shelton when he reached 5-4, landing ample returns, forcing the American into prolonged exchanges and allowing scoreboard pressure to come into play. Both times, he left with the set.
Despite the defeat, this was another excellent tournament for Shelton, who in two and a half years since leaving college has reached two grand slam semi-finals and two quarter-finals while steadily improving his game. But this match-up was a measure of how far the 22-year-old has to go. Shelton’s strengths are striking – he backs up his monstrous serve with his destructive, versatile forehand, excellent athleticism and a deep toolbox of shots.
Against a well-rounded player such as Sinner, though, Shelton’s weaknesses were glaring. That he won just 19% of Sinner’s service points was an indictment of his return. Although he has made significant improvements to his backhand, under pressure from an opponent who hits with such immense pace consistently, the stroke broke down in the prolonged exchanges.
Although Shelton outperformed Sinner in short rallies of 0-4 shots, winning 63 of those to 62, he was flattened in the baseline battles. In the mid-length rallies of 5-8 shots, Sinner finished 30-14 and the Italian was even more dominant in rallies of nine or more shots, closing out the match 14-4. Shelton has a long, exciting journey ahead as he tries to close the gap between himself and the top two players in the world. Of course, that is true for just about everyone else too.
