Jannik Sinner plays down Ben Shelton’s ‘nothing to lose’ mentality against him in the upcoming Australian Open semifinal
World No.1 Jannik Sinner is bidding to reach a Grand Slam final for the third time and will face World No.20 Ben Shelton in the last four.
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Jannik Sinner, Ben Shelton (Images via AO/X)
Jannik Sinner will have to go past Ben Shelton to move one more step closer to his second Australian Open trophy on the trot. The Italian and the American youngsters will meet in the semifinals, scheduled on Friday (January 24).
Shelton, after prevailing over Lorenzo Sonego, declared that he would be focusing on playing aggressive tennis to challenge Sinner. The 22-year-old was successful against the World No.1 just once in their five previous meetings with Sinner winning all four of those matches in straight sets.
I’ve been in situations like that before. It’s different for sure. But it’s going to be 0–0 at the start of the game. That’s the only thing I can control. If someone plays better than me that day, there’s not much I can do. We never take things for granted. We try to understand every situation, get better and stronger, and then we’ll see how it goes. Not just here, but for the rest of the season.
Jannik Sinner said at the press conference
Sinner is bidding to reach a Grand Slam final for the third time, after the 2024 Australian Open and 2024 US Open. After dismantling home favorite Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals, Sinner improved his match-winning streak on hard-court Grand Slam tournaments to 19.
Jannik Sinner faces criticism for lengthy timeout
Before sinking Alex de Minaur in less than two hours, Jannik Sinner battled some illness during his fourth-round clash with Holger Rune and even took an 11-minute medical timeout. Novak Djokovic too, while facing Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals, received treatment on his left thigh.
His critics, however, think the World No.7 was not injured and took a medical timeout to his advantage. Former doubles No.1 from Australia, Paul McNamee, however, is not a fan of these medical timeouts and criticized 1st seed Sinner for his lengthy absence from the court during the match versus Rune.
I can’t believe people are pointing to Novak when Jannik did that the day before. I mean that 11 and a half minutes medical time out – give me a break.
Paul McNamee told The Age
The 10-time Australian Open champion, who is also chasing his 25th Major, will have to oust World No.2 Alexander Zverev in the last four to reach another final. The Serbian great has faced Sascha 12 times and won eight of those matches, including their last encounter at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters.
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Gouri Das
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