Jannik Sinner didn’t play like someone dealing with his injured right elbow on Wednesday. Using his excellent serving and his usual booming forehand, he rejected 10-seeded American Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4, and earned his second appearance in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
The No. 1 rank sinner can see a strip of tape on top of the elbow, one above the elbow, one below it, two days after he was injured when he slipped and fell in the opening game of his fourth match with Grigor Dimitrov.
Thinner, Italy’s three-time Grand Slam champion and runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open last month, took the MRI exam on Tuesday and first cancelled the practice session for the day, but hit some balls in a 20-minute session at the indoor court.
“When you’re playing a lot of tension, you try not to think about it,” said Thinner, who reached the fourth consecutive major semi-finals, including the US Open title last September and the Australian Open in January. “It’s been greatly improved from yesterday until today.”
Other sinners reached so far at the All England Club in 2023, and he was eliminated by Djokovic.
At the number one court against Shenton, Thinner came out as if things weren’t wrong. I accumulated 15 winners in one forced error, grabbing 27 out of 29 service points in the first set.
“You can’t go to the game thinking that a guy won’t be 100%,” Shelton said. “His ball was getting quite big today so we didn’t see any difference.”
Still, Shelton stayed with him until all two were done on the tiebreaker. That’s when the sinner surges ahead and is helped by double faults and four consecutive forehand errors by Shelton.
First in the second set, Shelton ultimately advanced in the return game, scoring a breakpoint 15-40.
For one, the sinner gave birth to a winner of the forehand. Meanwhile, he hit a 132 mph serve (fastest in the match) and rushed to Deuce when Shelton’s attempt at a backhand pass found the net. It was followed by a winner of the 118 mph ace and a 125 mph service.
Those were Shelton’s only chance to rest.
The second half of that set came a brief moment when the sinner seemed to have problems with his arm after trying to return a 141 mph serve from Shenton. The sinner shook his right wrist and grabbed his elbow with his left hand. But that was about it.
In the two of the third set, Shelton’s father, former Tour Pro Brian (coach), leaned into his seat and told Ben:
There was no dip from the sinner. He finished 33-17, almost twice the winner of the unforced error, earning 50 of 56 first-service points.
Thinner scored 55 baseline points. Shelton 24 claimed at a point that lasted more than five strokes, with thinner claiming 44 and Shelton claiming just 18.
“There’s no good stage to playing tennis,” he said.
The 22-year-old Shelton reached his third major semi-final, joining American-American Taylor Fritz and attempted to set up a meeting with Alcaraz on Tuesday on Friday.
Shelton comes out and Fritz is the only European left in a male draw. All male majors since the beginning of 2010 were won by Europeans. The last non-European to win the majors was Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro at the 2009 US Open.
ESPN research and Associated Press contributed to this report.