No. 1 Jannik Sinner defeated No. 10 Ben Shelton 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 in Thursday’s men’s quarterfinal at Wimbledon. Sinner will now advance to the semifinals for the second time in three years and face Novak Djokovic on Friday.
Sinner, who was wearing a sleeve over his right arm after injuring his elbow against Grigor Dimitrov on Monday, was efficient, besting Shelton with 33 winners and making only 17 unforced errors to Shelton’s 38. It was the Italian’s second straight win this year against the American after Sinner knocked Shelton out of the Australian Open semifinals in January on the way to his third career Grand Slam title.
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“I’m very, very happy with this performance. Playing against him is so difficult,” Sinner said afterward of Shelton.
The 23-year-old Sinner is now 69-9 in his major tournament career after winning the first set of a match.
The victory improves Sinner’s lifetime record against Shelton to 6-1, which includes a win during last year’s Wimbledon Round of 16, and puts him in the semifinals for the fourth straight major tournament (2024 U.S. Open, 2025 Australian Open, 2025 French Open).
Novak Djokovic is seeking his eighth Wimbledon crown and 25th career major victory. (Photo by Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
(Daniel Kopatsch via Getty Images)
Djokovic moves on to seventh straight Wimbledon semifinal
Novak Djokovic advanced to his seventh straight Wimbledon semifinal and the 14th of his career after defeating Flavio Cobolli 6-7, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday.
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The No. 6 seed Djokovic, who now has 102 career wins at the All-England Club, will face No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner on Friday.
After dropping the opening set, Djokovic took advantage of Cobolli’s 44 unforced errors and won the final three sets of the match. According to The i Paper’s James Gray, it was the 54th time out of 94 instances that Djokovic has advanced at a Grand Slam tournament after losing the first set.
The last time Djokovic did not advance beyond the Wimbledon quarterfinals was in 2017 when he was forced to retire against Tomáš Berdych due to an elbow injury.
Djokovic and Sinner have met nine times in their careers with Sinner holding a 5-4 advantage. Friday’s match will be the fifth time they will have played one another in a major and the third time at Wimbledon. Djokovic holds a 2-0 advantage there with wins at the 2022 quarterfinals and 2023 semifinals.
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A seven-time Wimbledon champion, Djokovic has lost in the final the past two years to Carlos Alcaraz, who will take on Taylor Fritz in Friday’s other semifinal.
