Jannik Sinner made it to the quarter-finals of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships after beating Ben Shelton in three sets.
The American was coming into this match after playing three consecutive five-setters, and it was clear that should it come to stamina battle, his Italian opponent may have an advantage due to his smoother progression through the draw at SW19.
However, it never came to that, as Sinner had a perfect start to the match. He managed to read his opponent's serve really well in the opening set, paving his way to three break points, and even though he used only two, it was more than enough for an impressive first-set win, 6-2.
The American still didn't manage to recover from that first set early in the second, and that ultimately cost him the set. Sinner, riding the momentum from the first set, broke his opponent's serve immediately in the first game, and that proved to be decisive.
Despite his best efforts, Shelton couldn't create a single break point chance in the first two sets of the match, and that was one of the reasons why he was 0-2 down after two sets of play as the World No. 1 won the second set 6-4.
In the third set, however, it was the 14th seed who broke first, and it was with his first break point of the match. However, Shelton wasn't able to keep the one-break advantage, but ultimately, it didn't have to be detrimental to him.
He first had a set point when his opponent was serving to force the tie-break in the 12th game of the third set, and even after failing to use that break point, he had a tie-break to try to force at least the fourth set.
Initially behind, Shelton rallied back to lead 6-5, and with two balls in his hand, he had a chance to serve out the first-set tie-break. However, he didn't manage to do that, and as the pressure increased, it got to him.
Both players were really close until 10-9 for the Italian, when Shelton couldn't calm his nerves and served a double fault, only his third of the match, as Sinner won the match 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(9) to reach his third consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final.
Jannik Sinner vs Ben Shelton Match Stats:
| Jannik Sinner | Ben Shelton | |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Aces | 15 |
| 0 | Double Faults | 3 |
| 70% | First Serve % | 73% |
| 76% (47/62) | Points Won After First Serve % | 70% (48/69) |
| 70% (19/27) | Points Won After Second Serve % | 42% (11/26) |
| 67% (4/6) | Break Point Conversion | 50% (1/2) |
| 28 | Winners | 27 |
| 29 | Unforced Errors | 36 |
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