Sinner shines against Shelton, reaches Wimbledon QFs

Jannik Sinner very much looked the part of the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings on Sunday at Wimbledon.

The Italian dismissed dangerous 14th seed Ben Shelton 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(9) to reach the quarter-finals at The Championships for the third consecutive year. The 22-year-old is the first Italian man in history to make the last eight at Wimbledon three times.

B O O M ?

4 set points saved by @janniksin as he downs Shelton to book his place into the quarter-finals!@Wimbledon | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/qUNl0wgwlk

Sinner had to work hard in his first two matches (both four-setters), especially in a second-round blockbuster against countryman Matteo Berrettini, who pushed him to a fourth-set tie-break. He has not lost a set in two matches since.

The top seed needed to be sharp against Shelton, who loves competing on the biggest stages against the top players. Last year in October the American defeated the Italian in a final-set tie-break. It was not outlandish to think Shelton could cause problems for this year’s Australian Open champion with his booming serve on the No. 1 Court grass. 

But for the most part, Sinner neutralised Shelton’s serve. The 14th seed only won 70 per cent of his first-serve points and lost four service games in the two-hour, eight-minute match.

Shelton entered the encounter having played every day of the tournament due to rain, and he played the maximum 15 sets through three matches. Sinner critically was able to dominate rallies of zero to four shots by an 81-62 margin and pushed his opponent well behind the baseline during many rallies.

Shelton is at his best when he is dictating off his serve and controlling the action. But Sinner, who is now 42-3 on the season, did well to control how the match would be played.

As the match wore on, the 21-year-old Shelton clawed his way into the fourth-round clash and broke the Italian’s serve early in the third set.

After retrieving the break, Sinner thrilled the crowd at 4-5, 40/30 in the third set with an improvised forward-facing tweener half-volley off a perfect return from Shelton. The Italian eventually won the point with a forehand passing shot and both players could not help but smile.

"That was just luck! There’s nothing to talk. I don’t know. Sometimes… I don’t know what to say, honestly!”

Shelton earned three set points in the third-set tie-break, but was unable to keep alive his hopes of reaching a maiden Wimbledon quarter-final. Of those three chances, the former University of Florida standout's best opportunity came at 6/5, when he tried to put away an inside-out forehand and missed wide.

Sinner, who now leads Shelton 3-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, will play fifth seed Daniil Medvedev or 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.

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