Jannik Sinner eases past Ben Shelton to Wimbledon SFs

Wimbledon

No 'arm done! Sinner eases past Shelton to Wimbledon SFs

Top seed to face Djokovic or countryman Cobolli for final spot

Julian Finney/Getty Images Jannik Sinner defeats Ben Shelton in straight sets on Wednesday at Wimbledon to reach the semi-finals. By Andy West

Jannik Sinner shook off pre-match injury fears to deliver a statement quarter-final victory against Ben Shelton on Wednesday afternoon at Wimbledon.

The No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings produced a trademark rock-solid display to down Shelton 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 and reach the last four at the grass major for the second time. Sinner, who sustained an elbow injury and fell to a two-sets deficit before Grigor Dimitrov retired from the pair’s fourth-round clash, quickly eased any fears of serious damage to his arm by nullifying Shelton’s power across two hours and 19 minutes on No. 1 Court.

“I’m very, very happy about today’s performance,” said Sinner, who converted his third match point of a Shelton return game at 5-4 in the third set, 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.”

Wearing a white sleeve on his right arm for the first meeting between Top 10 players at 2025 Wimbledon, Sinner reeled off seven straight points to clinch the opening-set tie-break, before earning the only break of serve in the second and third to complete his win. It was a sixth consecutive victory for the Italian in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with 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.”

Now 24-3 for the 2025 season, Australian Open champion Sinner will take on seven-time Wimbledon titlist Novak Djokovic or Flavio Cobolli in Friday’s semi-finals. Should Cobolli oust Djokovic in Wednesday’s other quarter-final clash, it will mark the first time that multiple Italians have reached the men’s singles semi-finals at Wimbledon.

After a first set featuring no break points, Sinner dropped the first two points of the tie-break but was flawless from then on to snatch an early lead. He reeled off seven straight points, four of which came on Shelton’s serve, to surge to the opening set.

Shelton was on the brink of posting an immediate reply when he carved out the first break points of the match at 15/40 in the first game of the second set, but Sinner quickly fended them off. The Italian moved well on the No. 1 Court grass throughout the match, and despite the sleeve on his arm appeared to hit with his trademark power on serve and off both wings.

Some razor-sharp returning in the 10th game of the second set earned Sinner a set point at 5-4, 30/40, and the 23-year-old took his chance. He again exerted pressure on the Shelton serve at 5-4 in third set and, although the American saved two match points, he was unable to deny his opponent victory on a third.

More to follow…

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