Two power hitters competing in a slugfest early transitioned into a calculated display of consistency from World No. 1 Jannik Sinner during Wednesday’s straight sets win over Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Sinner’s victory (7-6, 6-4, 6-4) was more competitive than the final tally indicates, but prevailing in all the key moments of the match despite elbow soreness from the Italian is a notable feat.
Sinner will play the winner of Novak Djokovic and Flavio Cobolli in Friday’s semifinals on Centre Court. Fifth-seeded Taylor Fritz is the lone remaining American on the men’s side. He’ll play Carlos Alcaraz on Friday. Let’s take a closer look at Wednesday’s match and what went right for Sinner.
Solving the Sinner puzzle
A precise ball striker who picks and chooses when to pounce on his opponent, Sinner’s day at the office on grass was another vintage showing. Seeking his first Wimbledon title, Sinner lost just one point on serve in the first set, coasting toward another Grand Slam semifinal appearance as the aggressor. Despite Shelton’s big serves early, it felt like Sinner was simply trying to get to the first-set tiebreak against the underdog — knowing that is where he would advantage. Sinner’s calculated style of play is part of the reason he’s a three-time major champion who is now two wins away from his first championship at Wimbledon.
First set tiebreaker set tone
As is the case with most elite servers, Sinner and Shelton exchanged games throughout the 53-minute opening set before going to a critical tiebreak. Shelton led 2-0 at the start with a chance to snap an 11-set losing skid to Sinner before a double fault on serve provided a window of opportunity for the Italian. And when the World No. 1 is given extra chances, he’s sure to take advantage. Shelton followed his miss on his second serve at 2-2 with three consecutive forehand errors that sailed beyond the baseline, perhaps trying a bit too hard to overpower Sinner. Shelton was previously 4-0 in tiebreakers at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club over the last two weeks.
Get used to Sinner-Shelton in majors
If there was any worry of Shelton playing shaky against an opponent who had won five of the previous six meetings between the two, the American answered the bell early, but could not outlast arguably the most consistent threat on the men’s side. Sinner has only lost two sets in the tournament, both coming to Grigor Dimitrov, who retired with a commanding lead in the fourth round. Wednesday’s rematch of the 2025 Australian Open semifinals provided another glimpse of two of the game’s best. Shelton didn’t face a break point until the eighth game of the second set against one of the London favorites before smashing a couple forehand winners to avoid the break.
That said, Shelton failed to break Sinner throughout — even with a 30-0 lead at 4-4 in the third — and by the end of the second set, you could sense the quarterfinal slipping out of reach. Despite a few wicked serves that carried past 140 mph in the third set, Shelton had no counters for Sinner’s service games and was forced to play from behind.
“Has Ben Shelton played badly? No. Has it been the best he’s every played? No,” John McEnroe said during the third set, acknowledging Sinner being the master of consistency.
Monitoring the elbow
Donning an arm sleeve for the first time this tournament, Sinner grabbed his right elbow and grimaced in the fifth game of the second set after mishitting a forehand return off the frame from Shelton. After only one unforced error in the first set, Sinner had six in the second as it appeared the arm was beginning to bother him. The rest of the match went fine for Sinner, who hit most of his forehands cleanly throughout. Sinner was limited in practice to indoors on Tuesday leading into the quarterfinal while waiting on MRI results on his elbow, but only looked like he was in pain once during the match. Shelton had three times as many forehand errors, comparatively.
