There were no concerns of a lingering elbow injury for the world no. 1 Jannik Sinner as he took down the 10th seed Ben Shelton in straight sets during their Wimbledon quarter-final face-off. Rather, the American Shelton ended up being spellbound by his Italian nemesis’s supreme levels and command over his serve in a 6-7(2), 4-6, 4-6 defeat.
Sinner, who suffered an elbow injury during his fourth-round walkover victory over Grigor Dimitrov, entered the contest with a protective arm sleeve. However, Sinner ended up dominating proceedings to leave Shelton with a frustrating spell of consistently losing to either him or Carlos Alcaraz at the Grand Slams.
The 22-year-old Shelton, 1-6 down in the head-to-head, hailed Sinner’s ball-striking pace as an almost never-before-seen experience.
Insane ball-striking
“It’s frustrating. There are a lot of things. It’s two very different players (Sinner and Alcara) and challenges. With Sinner, whom I’ve played the most, his ball speed is really high. I’ve never seen anything like it. You don’t see anything like it when you’re going through the draw. When you play him it’s almost like things are in 2x speed. I’m usually pretty good at adjusting to that speed. It’s difficult when a guy is hitting the ball that big that consistently off both wings and serving the way he is,” Shelton said.
Showtime between Ben Shelton and Jannik Sinner 🎬
The Play of the Day, presented by @BarclaysUK#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/UZClNA61wK
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2025
“I had the right idea for a lot of the match today. I served a lot better than I did in Australia. Smarter. Just went for it. But my first serve percentage dropped in the moments I needed it. I probably played too tentative. It was almost like a lot of the forehands I was hitting that you need to go for against a guy like that, I was kind of spinning them, topping out. Like I was playing on a slower hard court or a clay court. For me I’m still learning on the grass what works and what’s most effective. I didn’t have a great day today of doing things that were gonna make him uncomfortable,” Shelton assessed
The 22-year-old reached the quarter-finals at three of the four Slams, and entered the second week in six of 12 majors.
“I could sit there and be like, ‘Wow, 22 years old and I’ve been able to do these things and achieve these things’. But my mind is, I don’t know, critical. I’m a critical thinker. I’m trying to solve problems,” Shelton said. “I know that I’m not where I want to be. That’s kind of what I’m focusing on,” Shelton said.
Still chasing his first Wimbledon title, Sinner will run into seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final on Friday, a repeat of their French Open clash at the same stage in May.
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