By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -World number one Jannik Sinner shrugged off any doubts about his injured elbow to reach the Wimbledon semi-final for the second time with a clinical defeat of powerful American 10th seed Ben Shelton on Wednesday.
A high-octane contest on a muggy Court One was decided by slender margins with Italian Sinner seizing the few opportunities that came his way in ruthless fashion for a 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4 victory.
Sinner dropped two points on serve in the opening set but could make no impression on Shelton’s booming delivery either before reeling off seven points to storm through the tiebreak.
Shelton continued slugging it out with the three-time Grand Slam champion but the American faltered at 4-5 in the second set, Sinner taking control as he converted just his second break point opportunity of the contest.
It was a repeat performance in the third set as Sinner applied the pressure in the 10th game and Shelton duly cracked, serving a double-fault before bashing a forehand long on match point after two hours and 19 minutes.
The 23-year-old Sinner, bidding to become the first Italian to win Wimbledon, will face either seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, the man he was beaten by in the 2023 semis, or compatriot Flavio Cobolli on Friday.
Sinner has now won an incredible 20 successive Tour-level matches against American players and his last 15 sets against Shelton who must be sick of the sight of him.
After Monday’s lucky escape against Grigor Dimitrov who retired hurt when leading by two sets after Sinner had appeared to also suffer an elbow injury, this was business as usual for the man who has reached the last four Grand Slam semi-finals.
“Of course, the feelings are definitely different. I’m very, very happy about today’s performance,” Sinner said.
Sinner’s suspect elbow was given a thorough test by the 140mph serving of Shelton, but apart from one moment in the second set he appeared untroubled by it.
“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,” he said.
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
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