Sinner demolishes Minaur to set up Melbourne semi with Shelton

FE Team | Published: January 22, 2025 22:44:33

Italy's Jannik Sinner hits a return against Australia's Alex De Minaur during their men's singles quarter-final match on day eleven of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Wednesday. — AFP

MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (AFP): Defending champion Jannik Sinner shattered home hopes Wednesday by crushing Alex de Minaur in a straight-sets rout to tee up an Australian Open semi-final against Ben Shelton.
The Italian world number one showed no signs of the illness that hampered him in his last match to emphatically fly past the eighth seed 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena.
He will meet stubborn American Shelton for a place in Sunday's final against either 10-time champion Novak Djokovic or second seed Alexander Zverev.
Shelton, seeded 21, battled past another Italian, the unseeded Lorenzo Sonego, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) to make the Melbourne Park last four for the first time.
The writing was on the wall for De Minaur with Sinner winning all nine of their previous meetings.
De Minaur was given a glimmer of hope after Sinner battled illness in his last-16 clash, where he admitted he was "not there health-wise" and had been "a bit dizzy at times" in hot weather.
But the Italian showed no evidence of the issues on a much cooler quarter-final day, moving freely and displaying no discomfort.