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 retired 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 light session at an indoor court later.
“It has improved a lot from yesterday to today — yesterday my day was very short on the practice court,” Sinner said in an on-court interview. “This is no excuse … there is no better stage to play tennis, the atmosphere helps me.”
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.
Sinner faced a pair of break points at the start of the second set but saved both and never was threatened again. He broke the big-serving Shelton once in that set and again in the match’s last game.
In his second Wimbledon semifinal, Sinner will meet either 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic or No. 22 seed Flavio Cobolli. The other time Sinner made it this far at the All England Club, in 2023, he was eliminated by Djokovic.
Shelton was trying to reach his third major semifinal and join fellow American Taylor Fritz, who won Tuesday to set up a meeting with Alcaraz on Friday.
With Shelton out, Fritz is the only non-European left in the men’s draw. Every men’s major since the start of 2010 has been won by a European; the last non-European man to win a major was Argentina’s Juan Martín del Potro at the 2009 US Open.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
