Jannik Sinner Survives Shelton's Early Heroics To Reach Another Australian Open Final
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Jannik Sinner advanced to the second consecutive Australian Open final after beating Ben Shelton.
Fans at the Rod Laver Arena were certainly disappointed after the first men's singles semi-final match. Novak Djokovic retired against Alexander Zverev after just one set, and fans showed their disappointment after that match.
They hoped that the second semi-final match would deliver a better show, and it certainly did, at least early on. Shelton beat Sinner in their first-ever meeting, but since then, he couldn't win a set in the following four matches that they played.
But he came to play this time, and he showed it already in the opening game of the match. He played some sensational tennis to break Sinner's serve and lead 1-0 after the opening game of the match.
But that power and precision from the opening game suddenly went missing in the following games. Shelton made one unforced error after another and despite initially holding to lead 2-0, he kept piling up mistakes, and that proved to be costly.
The American player lost his one-break advantage, and Sinner leveled the score at 2-2. The ATP World No. 1 player then had two more break points to lead already 4-2, but Shelton started finding some of his best tennis again when it mattered.
He continued playing great, troubling the top seed. The American player worked his way to two more break points at 5-5, and he used already the first one to lead 6-5 and serve for the set.
As one of the best servers on the ATP Tour, Shelton was favored to serve out the opening set, even though he played against the best player in the world at the moment.
Initially, he confirmed that prognosis, as he had two set points to serve out the opening set, but he couldn't use either. Sinner broke back and a tie-break had to decide.
Deflated by missing out on big chances to win the first set, the 22-year-old player completely missed the start of the tie-break. Sinner was just the better player, and he won the tie-break easily 7-2.
Shelton's disappointment from losing the first set, along with Sinner's improved level, meant that fans in Melbourne didn't enjoy a big show in the second set of the match.
The defending champion was all over his opponent, regardless of who was serving. Thanks to his dominance, he won the second set of the match 6-2.
In between the sets, Shelton received some treatment on his right thigh, and maybe also that helped him to shine at the start of the third set again. The American player was hitting big shots again, and he wasn't missing as much.
In the first four games, Shelton had a total of three break points, but he couldn't convert any of those chances. That came back to bite him when he started struggling at 2-2.
The World No. 20 struggled to hit the court as precisely as he did before, even though Sinner was visibly struggling physically. The Italian was limping in between the rallies, but he still managed to break his opponent's serve. Still, he received some treatment during the changeover.
After the treatment, Sinner looked like a new man, totally dominating the following game while hitting some spectacular winners.
Although he tried, Shelton couldn't trouble his opponent anymore in this semi-final match. Sinner won it in three sets, 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2 to reach his second consecutive Australian Open final.
