World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, defending champion in Melbourne, scored a 19th victory in a row on Wednesday to secure his place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, where he will face the American Ben Shelton (20th).
Double Grand Slam winner, the 23-year-old Italian beat Australian Alex De Minaur (8th) 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to equal the longest winning streak of his career.
Sinner has been undefeated since the final of the Beijing tournament in early October 2024, where he was dominated by world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.
After a round of 16 where he seemed overwhelmed by the heat and admitted to having suffered from “dizziness”, the world No.1 experienced little difficulty on Wednesday under much milder temperatures (around twenty degrees Celsius).
Thanks to his victory against De Minaur, beaten ten times in as many confrontations by the Italian, Sinner becomes the first player from his country to reach the last four of the first Grand Slam of the season several times.
-He also equals his compatriot Nicola Pietrangeli in the ranking of the number of semi-finals played in a Grand Slam by an Italian player (5) and will become the sole record holder if he again reaches the last four of a major tournament at future.
Sinner will face American left-hander Ben Shelton on Friday, who fell in four sets to Italian Lorenzo Sonego (55th) earlier in the day.
In the other semi-final, the ten-time winner in Melbourne Novak Djokovic (7th) will challenge the German Alexander Zverev (2nd).
