World No1 Jannik Sinner remains on course to reach the Wimbledon final for the first time in his career after a straight-sets victory over Ben Shelton saw him into the last four.
Sinner and Shelton produced only two breaks of serve between them on Court No1, but crucially both of them fell the way of Sinner as the top seed came through 7-6 6-4 6-4.
While Sinner is yet to learn his semi-final opponent on Friday, he knows he will face either compatriot Flavio Cobolli or the seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic.
Grigor Dimitrov was two sets up on Sinner when he had to retire in the fourth round on Monday due to injury, and the world No1 didn’t come through entirely unscathed either, suffering an elbow injury.
While that injury limited his time on the practise court to just 20 minutes on Tuesday, he insisted after defeating the 12th seed Shelton on Wednesday that it had already “improved a lot” and was not an “excuse”.
There were certainly no signs he was struggling with the injury on Court No1 as he delivered one of his finest performances of the tournament so far.
Sinner is the world’s top-ranked player and was thus the top seed heading into Wimbledon, but the three-time Grand Slam winner has never reached the final at SW19 and in beating Shelton made it to the semi-final stage for only the second time, following 2023.
There were no breaks of serve throughout a very evenly-matched opening set which entered a tiebreak. Despite Shelton taking a mini-break lead at 2-0, Sinner showed immense powers of recovery to win all of the subsequent seven points to take the tiebreak 7-2 and get over the line in the first set, 7-6.
The first break of serve proved a crucial one as it handed Sinner the second set 6-4.
The game featured just one more break of service as both players served exceptionally throughout. It came at exactly the same stage of the third set and saw Sinner wrap up victory by taking the third set by the same 6-4 scoreline.
Shelton saved one match point with a ferocious forehand winner and a second with a blistering 140mph ace, but a double fault handed Sinner a third match point and the Italian was - this time - able to take advantage.
“My feelings are definitely different,” Sinner said afterwards, comparing victory over Shelton with his previous match when Dimitrov retired while leading.
“I am very happy about my performance. He [Shelton] serves very well. I am looking forward to these kinds of battles. It’s more special to play in front of you guys.
“I remember the first time playing at Centre Court. I remember the first time playing a semi-final here. It’s very, very special. I’m looking forward to it.
“When you are one year older, it makes such a difference, getting used to these big stages. Wimbledon is the most special tournament.”
Sinner was asked for an update on the elbow injury that had restricted his training preparation ahead of facing Shelton.
“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it. It has improved a lot from yesterday to today. Yesterday my day was very short — 20 minutes on the practice court with the coaches only. This is no excuse.
“There is no better stage to play tennis, and I think I showed this today. The atmosphere helps.”
