LONDON — Jannik Sinner sure didn’t play like someone dealing with an injured right elbow Wednesday, using terrific serving and his usual booming forehand to dismiss 10th-seeded Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 and earn a second appearance in the Wimbledon semifinals.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner wore a white sleeve on his right arm with strips of tape visible underneath – one above the elbow, one below it – two days after he was hurt when he slipped and fell in the opening game of his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov.
Sinner said he felt pain when he hit serves or forehands in that contest, and he dropped the first two sets before moving into the quarterfinals when Dimitrov quit in the third set because he tore a chest muscle.
Sinner, a three-time Grand Slam champion and the runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open last month, had an MRI exam on Tuesday and initially canceled a practice session that day but did hit some balls in a 20-minute session at an indoor court later.
“When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try to not think about it,” said Sinner, who reached his fourth consecutive major semifinal and next faces either 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic or No. 22 Flavio Cobolli. “It has improved a lot from yesterday to today.”
The other time Sinner made it this far at the All England Club, in 2023, he was eliminated by Djokovic.
Against Shelton at No. 1 Court, Sinner came out as though not a thing were wrong, grabbing 27 of his 29 service points in the first set while accumulating a total of 15 winners to just one unforced error.
Still, Shelton stayed right with him until 2-all in the tiebreaker. That’s when Sinner surged in front, helped by a double-fault and four consecutive forehand errors by Shelton.
At the outset of the second set, Shelton finally made some headway in a return game, getting a pair of break points at 15-40.
On one, Sinner produced a forehand winner. On the other, he pounded a 132-mph serve – his fastest of the match – and rushed forward, getting to deuce when Shelton’s backhand pass attempt found the net. That was followed by a 118-mph ace and a 125-mph service winner.
Those were Shelton’s only break chances.
Later in that set came a brief moment where Sinner did appear to have an issue with his arm after trying to return a 141-mph serve from Shelton, a 22-year-old American who was trying to reach his third Slam semifinal. Sinner shook his right wrist and then held that elbow with his left hand. But that was about it.
At 2-all in third set, Shelton’s father, former tour pro Bryan – who is also his coach – leaned forward in his seat and told Ben: “Just takes one little dip from him. Be ready for the opportunity to take it. Come on! Keep staying there! Let’s go!”
There never was a dip from Sinner. He finished with nearly twice as many winners as unforced errors, 33 to 17, and took 50 of his 56 first-serve points.
Sinner has now won their past six matchups, all in straight sets, including a year ago at Wimbledon and in January at the Australian Open.
On Wednesday, Shelton tried to stay with Sinner in baseline exchanges, which didn’t really work. Not at all.
Sinner won 55 baseline points, Shelton 24. Of the points that lasted five strokes or more, Sinner claimed 44, Shelton just 18.
As for the elbow, Sinner said afterward that it’s “no excuse.”
“There is no better stage to play tennis,” he said, “and I think I showed this today.”
Swiatek advances to semifinals
Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday.
“Even though I’m in the middle of the tournament, I already got goosebumps after this win,” said Swiatek, who will face unseeded Belinda Bencic on Thursday for a spot in the final. “I’m super happy and super proud of myself.”
Bencic beat No. 7 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2019 U.S. Open. The other women’s semifinal is No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against No. 13 Amanda Anisimova; they advanced with wins Tuesday.
“It doesn’t end here,” Bencic said.
Swiatek is a five-time major champion, with four of those titles on the red clay of the French Open, and the other on the hard courts of the U.S. Open. She’s also twice been a semifinalist at the hard-court Australian Open.
The grass courts of the All England Club always had given her the most trouble as a pro, even though she did claim a junior championship there in 2018. In her five appearances in the Wimbledon women’s bracket before this year, she had made it as far as the quarterfinals just once, exiting in that round in 2023.
But the 24-year-old from Poland is enjoying a career-best run on the slick surface, thanks in part to being more comfortable with the footing required.
“I, for sure, feel like I really worked hard to progress here on this surface,” Swiatek said. “So this year, I feel like I can just work with it and work with myself. I’ll just keep doing that.”
Before the start of Wimbledon, Swiatek was the runner-up in Bad Homburg, Germany, her first final at a tournament played on grass — and her first final at any event in more than a year, a drought that resulted in her falling from the No. 1 ranking and being seeded No. 8 at the All England Club.
Her rough stretch included a one-month ban last season in a doping case after an investigation determined a failed out-of-competition drug test was caused by an unintentional contamination of non-prescription medication for issues with jet lag and sleeping. On the court, a semifinal loss to Sabalenka at Roland-Garros last month ended Swiatek’s 26-match French Open winning streak.
Swiatek led by a set and 3-0 in the second against Samsonova, who was appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Soon, though, it was 4-all, then 5-all. But Swiatek held for a 6-5 lead, then broke to end it, and a smile spread across her face.
“I saw how I can play on practice courts. I was just not sure if I can do it on the match court,” Swiatek said. “I kind of already did. I’m going to try to continue that.”
Bencic, who at 28 is a decade older than Andreeva, is competing in her second major tournament since returning to the tour after giving birth to a daughter, Bella, in April 2024.
“I’m very proud, actually. All my career, I didn’t say it a lot to myself, but after having Bella, I really say it to myself every day,” Bencic said. “We are just enjoying life on tour with Bella, traveling. It’s been beautiful to create these memories together. And obviously, to play great is so amazing, but for me, it’s a bonus. I’m generally just really happy to be able to play again.”