World No.1 Jannik Sinner reassured and Polish Iga Swiatek (2nd) impressed on Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, to reach the last four with Ben Shelton (20th) and Madison Keys (14th).
– Sinner devours De Minaur, 2nd semi-final for Shelton –
Title holder in Melbourne, world No.1 Jannik Sinner won with authority against Australian Alex De Minaur in the quarter-final.
Winner 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 against the 8th in the world, the 23-year-old Italian reassured himself after a round of 16 where he had dropped a set to Holger Rune (13th) and seemed to overheat in the furnace of Melbourne .
The significantly milder temperature on Wednesday (around twenty degrees Celsius) allowed Sinner, the first Italian to reach the last four several times in Melbourne, to secure a quick victory before a day of rest.
On Friday, he will face American Ben Shelton (20th) to try to reach the final for the second year in a row, while Novak Djokovic (7th) will challenge Alexander Zverev (2nd) in the other semi-final.
“I am very happy with my performance,” Sinner said after his quarter-final victory. “When you break quickly in each set, things are a little easier.”
Asked about his state of health, the world No.1 simply replied that “when you are young, you recover quickly”.
Earlier in the day, Ben Shelton spent nearly four hours on the court of the Rod Laver Arena to defeat the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (55th) and reach his second Grand Slam final, after that of 2023 at the US Open.
Winner 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), the 22-year-old American said he was “relieved” to reach the semi-finals after “one of the favorite matches of his career.”
– Swiatek enchaîne, Keys stop Svitolina –
The rounds follow one another and are similar for Iga Swiatek: winner in two sets of her matches since the start of the tournament, the Pole continued her momentum in the quarters against the American Emma Navarro, a specialist in marathon matches but defeated 6 -1, 6-2.
-“It was a lot more difficult than the score suggests,” commented Swiatek who had to work hard at the start of the second set to stay in control. “Emma is a fighter. I’m happy to have won these close games, that’s what made the difference,” she said.
Swiatek “keeps trying, even when she misses a shot. She is merciless,” Navarro stressed.
Against the world No.8, the Pole advanced all the more confidently as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Monday that it would not appeal the one-month suspension (already served) imposed on the World No. 2 by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia) after a positive test for trimetazidine, a banned product.
Iga Swiatek, who maintained that her contamination was accidental, declared herself “satisfied” with WADA's decision.
She reached the final four in Melbourne for the second time in her career, three years after her first semi-final. Being back at this level is “great”, but “I'm going to fight to go further”, she warned.
She will face Thursday against the American Madison Keys, who qualified by beating the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (27th) earlier in the day.
The 2017 US Open finalist, now a three-time semi-finalist in Melbourne (2015, 2022, 2025), won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in just under two hours, facing a player she beat four times in six duels.
After losing the first set, “I felt like I had to play a little more aggressively. She was controlling a lot of points and making me run,” Keys noted.
“Fortunately (…), I play a little more intelligently” than in 2015, the year of her first half, she concluded.
On Tuesday, double title holder in Melbourne Aryna Sabalenka qualified for the semi-finals. She will challenge the Spaniard Paula Badosa (12th) on Thursday, who beat the American Coco Gauff (3rd) to offer herself, at 27, her first Grand Slam semi-final.
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