World No.1 Jannik Sinner overcame a pre-match injury scare to cruise past Ben Shelton in the men's singles quarterfinals and stormed into the semifinals of Wimbledon 2025 at the All England Club here on Wednesday. The Italian star produced another rock-solid display to defeat 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 was down two sets before escaping into the quarterfinals when 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 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 get to know each other a little bit better, and I’m looking forward to these kinds of battles.”
In his first meeting with Shelton at 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 ATP head-to-head series with Shelton.
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 semifinals.
“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try not to 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.”
Picture Courtesy: IANS
.jpg "Youth soccer club in B.C. hires security for games")