London — World No 1 Jannik Sinner shrugged off any doubts about his fitness to reach the Wimbledon semifinal for the second time with a clinical defeat of American Ben Shelton on Wednesday.
A high-octane contest on a muggy Court One was decided by slender margins with Italian Sinner seizing the few opportunities that came his way for a 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4 win.
Sinner dropped two points on serve in the opening set but could make no impression on Shelton’s booming delivery before reeling off seven points to storm through the tiebreak.
Tenth seed Shelton continued slugging it out with the three-time Grand Slam champion but the American faltered at 4-5 in the second set, Sinner taking control as he converted just his second break point opportunity of the contest.
It was a repeat in the third set as Sinner applied the pressure in the 10th game and Shelton buckled, striking a forehand long on match point after two hours and 19 minutes.
Meanwhile, the balls kept on listening to Iga Swiatek as the Polish eighth seed walloped Liudmila Samsonova 6-2 7-5 to reach the semifinals for the first time.
After years of nightmare outings on tennis’ fastest surface, Swiatek appears to have finally conquered her grass court demons as she said the “ball has been really listening” to her at Wimbledon this year.
That was certainly in evidence on Wednesday as from 2-2 in the first set, the ball dutifully obeyed Swiatek as winner after winner flew off her racket.
From that stage the five-time Grand Slam champion suffocated her Russian opponent on a hot and sticky Court One, winning seven games in a row with some ferocious forehands from the baseline that left Samsonova gasping for air.
The Russian 19th seed, who was inspired to pick up a tennis racket after watching compatriot Maria Sharapova playing on TV, managed to break the Swiatek serve not once but twice to level the second set at 4-4.
Four games later it was all over as Swiatek skipped around the court in celebration after hitting a brutal service return winner to complete her full set of semifinal appearances at the four Majors.
She will face 35th-ranked Swiss Belinda Bencic for a place in Saturday’s final.
Bencic won two tiebreaks to beat Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva 7-6(3) 7-6(2) and also reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time.
The only mother left in the singles draw smashed her first of four match points to win the second tiebreak of the contest and become her country’s first women’s semifinalist since Martina Hingis in 1998.
Andreeva, 18, fired four aces in the opening set to none for Bencic and there was next to nothing between the pair until the Russian netted a couple of forehands in the tiebreak.
Bencic had two break points at 4-4 in the second set, Andreeva saving one and then hitting long to go 5-4 down and leaving the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion to serve for a place in the last four.
Andreeva refused to follow the script, however, and broke straight back to 5-5 before going to 6-5 with 28-year-old Bencic then serving to take the match to another tiebreak.
Reuters
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