Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic win, set up clash in Wimbledon semis

Top-seeded Jannik Sinner showed no signs of being impacted by an elbow injury, getting past 10th-seeded Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of Wimbledon on Wednesday in London.

Sinner, of Italy, will be making his second appearance in the Wimbledon semifinals where he will face seven-time winner Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who beat unseeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. Djokovic advanced to a record 14th Wimbledon semifinal.

Sinner lost to Djokovic in straight sets in a 2023 Wimbledon semifinal.

“I’m very, very happy about today’s performance,” Sinner said on-court after the two-hour, 19-minute match. “Playing against him (Shelton) 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.”

Sinner continued his run against Shelton, moving to 6-1 in their head-to-head series. It was the first match of this Wimbledon fortnight between Top 10 players, and Sinner showed why he’s No. 1.

The Italian limited his mistakes, recording 33 winners and 17 unforced errors. Shelton had 29 winners — 14 of them from service aces — and 38 unforced errors.

For Sinner, the best news was that his elbow issue is improving.

“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,” said Sinner, who wore a sleeve on his arm. “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.”

Shelton squandered the chance to win the first set. In the tie-breaker, he went up 2-0, then lost seven straight points to drop the set.

The match featured only two service breaks — both in the last games of the second and third set with Shelton serving down 5-4.

Djokovic’s win over Cobolli allowed him to break Roger Federer’s record for semifinal appearances.

For the second consecutive round, Djokovic found himself battling back after he dropped the first set. He struggled to contain Cobolli’s athleticism and heavy hitting.

Djokovic won 75 percent of his first serves to go with 142 total points, to Cobolli’s 116. He needed three hours, 11 minutes and all his energy to complete the comeback, as he failed to convert either of his first two match points.

Djokovic even slipped on the baseline during the second match point and needed a stretching break before coming back to ultimately defeat the 23-year-old.

“It means the world to me that I’m still able at 38 to play final stages of Wimbledon, you know,” Djokovic said to rousing cheers in an on-court interview after the match. “Thank you for cheering for my age. I really appreciate it. It’s beautiful. Makes me feel very young.

“Another thing that makes me feel very young is competing with youngsters, you know like Cobolli today. He’s who knows how many years younger than me, and you know, I enjoy kind of sliding and running around the court with him and with all the other guys.

Djokovic is looking to make his 38th grand slam final and win his 25th grand slam title if he can make it past Sinner in the semifinals of the tournament he praised effusively after the match.

“Wimbledon was, is and still remains and always will be the most special tournament that we have in our sport — I mean, at least in my opinion, and I think in many players’ opinion,” he said.

–Field Level Media