Sinner beats Shelton to set up Djokovic semi-final
Defending champion Jannik Sinner beats eighth seed Ben Shelton 6-3 6-4 6-4 to set up a semi-final with Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.
Defending champion Jannik Sinner beats eighth seed Ben Shelton 6-3 6-4 6-4 to set up a semi-final with Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.
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Ben Shelton may have been stopped at a major for the fourth time by Jannik Sinner, but the American left Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday with plenty to be encouraged by after another deep Grand Slam run.
The eighth seed dropped just one set en route to his fifth major quarter-final before running into the Italian once again, with Sinner extending his dominance in the rivalry to a 9-1 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.
“I think my level is better, and I’m getting better and better and becoming a lot less limited,” Shelton said when analysing his progress. “I think this game takes time, and the results don’t always come when you want them. I’m getting to the point now where I’m getting stopped by the toughest challenge in the game for the most part, and I do think that I’m close to bringing it all together.
“I think it’s just going to take that one time where I do it to kind of get me over the hump. It’s always been that way for me. Certainly not discouraged from a performance like this, but I want to see myself get out in front and see what I can do from there in a match rather than falling behind just because I know how I feel when I get out in front at slams. I feel like I’m untouchable. I guarantee the other guys at the top feel the exact same.
“It’s a matter of time and work just trying to put all the pieces together, because I’m not complete yet, but I feel myself becoming more complete.”
Shelton reached his first major quarter-final at the Australian Open in 2023. The 23-year-old has since won three tour-level titles, including his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Toronto, and cracked the Top 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
At Slams, Shelton has often delivered, highlighted by semi-finals at the US Open (2023) and Australian Open (2025). It is under those conditions, he admits, that his competitive instincts are strongest.
“I’m an addict. I’ve become more and more addicted to this game and figuring things out, chasing the guys who are ahead of me,” Shelton said. “It’s feeling the pressure that you feel on the court at a Grand Slam, there’s no better feeling… That’s what drives me every day, and I just feel like the drive getting stronger and stronger each year.”
[NO 1 CLUB]Shelton caused two-time defending champion Sinner problems at times with his destructive first serve and bruising forehands, yet was unable to capitalise in the key moments in his 3-6, 4-6, 4-6 loss.
“I think I had two second-serve looks on break points today, and I think I missed both of them, or maybe one of them I hit weak and he spread me quickly,” Shelton said reflecting on the match.
“I think that with other guys, I can get away with putting in the court and either being at neutral or having to scramble a little bit at the first ball and then getting back to neutral or getting on offense. I was doing a really good job of that. But with a guy who has the plus-one ability that he has off of both sides, I needed to be a lot better and have more purpose with my second-serve return, which I thought that he had against me. He was able to put me in uncomfortable positions and get to offense a good amount of times on my second serve and make me think about which serves I was using.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]When Lorenzo Musetti walked to the net on Tuesday night at the Australian Open, the scoreboard told a story that tennis almost never sees.
Two sets to love up against Novak Djokovic, the Italian was forced to retire in their quarter-final, joining one of the sport’s most painful and unusual footnotes: players who have led by two sets at a Grand Slam and never finished the match.
Remarkably, this is not the first time Musetti has found himself on the wrong side of this rare statistic and against the same opponent. At Roland Garros in 2021, Musetti stunned the tennis world by taking the opening two sets from Djokovic in the fourth round. Physical struggles followed, Djokovic surged back, and Musetti eventually retired in the fifth set. Five years later, on a different surface, history repeated itself.
Across the entire Open Era (since 1968), there have been only a handful of instances where a player has retired from a major match despite holding a two-set advantage. Grigor Dimitrov was the most recent example at last year’s Wimbledon, where he retired due to a pectoral injury when leading Jannik Sinner 6-3, 7-5, 2-2.
| Match (Retired Player Second) | Score At Retirement | Major |
| Jannik Sinner-Grigor Dimitrov | 3-6, 5-7, 2-2 | Wimbledon 2025 |
| Ethan Quinn-Grigor Dimitrov | 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 | Roland Garros 2025 |
| Diego Schwartzman-Jack Sock | 3-6, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 | US Open 2022 |
| Novak Djokovic-Lorenzo Musetti | 6-7, 6-7, 6-1, 6-0, 4-0 | Roland Garros 2021 |
| Florent Serra-Steve Darcis | 6-7, 3-6, 5-4 | Australian Open 2012 |
| Michael Russell-Sergi Bruguera | 4-6, 5-7, 6-3 | Roland Garros 2001 |
| Grover Raz Reid-Sandy Mayer | 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 | US Open 1974 |
| Georges Goven-Mike Belkin | 4-6, 5-7, 3-0 | Roland Garros 1969 |
| Andres Gimeno-Manuel Santana | 4-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 1-0 | Roland Garros 1969 |
Research contribution from Jon Jeraj
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Novak Djokovic progresses to the Australian Open semi-finals after Lorenzo Musetti retires, while there are also wins for Jannik Sinner, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula.
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Jannik Sinner kept his Australian Open three-peat bid rolling on Wednesday, when he produced another ruthless performance to brush aside Ben Shelton and extend his stranglehold against the American.
The two-time defending champion, unbeaten in Melbourne since 2023, never looked in serious danger against Shelton, moving past the eighth seed 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to book his place in the semi-finals.
Shelton had dropped just one set on his way to a third Australian Open quarter-final, but as in the pair’s previous meetings, he struggled to unleash his explosive game against the Italian. Sinner exposed Shelton’s backhand, rushed him on the forehand wing and dictated from the baseline to improve his Lexus ATP Head2Head record to a commanding 9-1. All four of their major encounters have now gone Sinner’s way, twice in Australia and twice at Wimbledon.
“It is very tough to play against Ben,” Sinner said. “He has a huge, huge serve and I feel like he is improving so much, year after year. Especially after the offseason, you don’t know how certain players are going to play against you and change lots of things. I am very happy with today’s performance.”
[NO 1 CLUB]Into his ninth Grand Slam semi-final and third at the Australian Open, the four-time major champion faces a blockbuster next test against record 10-time winner Novak Djokovic. Sinner has enjoyed notable semi-final success against the Serbian before, defeating him at that stage at the Australian Open (2024), Roland Garros (2025) and Wimbledon (2025).
“These are the moments you practise for,” Sinner said on facing Djokovic. “I will wake up in the morning and will look forward to playing a good match hopefully. If you want to win you have to play at your best. In the past I have had great lessons and it doesn’t really matter the result, it improves you as a player and a person. We are lucky to still have Novak here, playing incredible tennis at his age.”
HYPED! 😳
Novak Djokovic vs Jannik Sinner for a place in the 2026 Australian Open final#AO26 pic.twitter.com/zzxBo1zBsF
— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 28, 2026
Rock-solid behind his first serve and unflinching in the longer rallies, the second seed never allowed Shelton a foothold, calmly absorbing pace before redirecting it with interest. Sinner quickly found his range on Rod Laver Arena, announcing his intent with a backhand around-the-net-post winner to open the third game. Moments later, he struck the decisive blow, breaking Shelton’s serve when the World No. 7 pushed a forehand into the bottom of the net to slip behind 1-3.
Sinner closed out the opening set in commanding fashion, finishing with an 18–4 winners-to-unforced-errors advantage in the set, and carried that momentum seamlessly into the second. The pressure on Shelton’s game only intensified, with the three-time tour-level titlist unable to settle into a clear pattern of play and faltering at crucial moments. Shelton squandered all three break points he created in the set and leaked a further 17 unforced errors, allowing Sinner to pull further clear.
Sinner, who appeared to struggle physically in the closing stages of the second set, earned the decisive break of the third set in the ninth game when Shelton hit a double fault down 15/40. The Italian closed out on serve to advance after two hours and 23 minutes.
Did You Know?
Sinner has won all 18 of his Grand Slam matches against American opponents and owns a 6-2 record against Top 10 players at the hard-court major, having lost his first two such encounters to Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2022 and 2023.
Novak Djokovic has never been one to downplay his ambitions, and even at 38, he isn’t about to start now.
After Lorenzo Musetti was forced to retire on Wednesday while holding a two-set lead, the Serbian moved into his 13th Australian Open semi-final. Standing between Djokovic and a record-extending 11th title at Melbourne Park is the sport’s new power struggle.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the top two players in the PIF ATP Rankings, have split the past eight major titles between them, and Djokovic could be required to beat both to lift the trophy again. Yet while he acknowledges the momentum of the game’s newest rivalry, Djokovic’s mind still drifts to the battles that defined an era.
“Roger and Rafa will always be my greatest rivals,” said Djokovic, who owns a positive Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Federer and Nadal. “I have tremendous respect for what Jannik and Carlos are doing and what they will do for the next 10 to 15, 20 years… God knows how many years they’re going to play, they’re so young.
“This is a natural cycle in sports. You’re going to have another two superstars [and] maybe have another third guy — who I’m going to cheer for — because I’ve always been the third guy at the beginning. But it’s good for our sport. I think these kinds of rivalries and the contrast of the personalities and the styles of play are very good for tennis.”
[NO 1 CLUB]The numbers underline just how present Djokovic still is. In 2025, he reached the semi-finals at all four majors, retiring against Alexander Zverev in Melbourne, losing to Sinner in straight sets at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and falling to Alcaraz at the US Open.
While results suggest the new generation has seized the upper hand, Djokovic rejects the idea that he is chasing anyone else’s legacy.
“How is [their rivalry] affecting me? As I said, I don’t feel like I’m chasing. I’m creating my own history,” Djokovic said. “I’ve been very clear when I say that my intention is always in terms of achievements, objectives and results. I want to get to the championship match in every tournament, particularly Slams. Slams are one of the biggest reasons why I keep on competing and playing tennis.
“Are they better right now than me and all the other guys? Yes, they are. The quality and the level is amazing. It’s great. It’s phenomenal. But does that mean that I walk out with a white flag? No. I’m going to fight until the last shot, until the last point, and do my very best to challenge them.”
With his opening-round win over Pedro Martinez, he became the first player to record 100 victories at three different Grand Slam events. Now, he is chasing a record 25th major title, one with which he would move him clear of Margaret Court atop the all-time list.
A fourth-round walkover following Jakub Mensik’s withdrawal has afforded Djokovic extra recovery time, raising questions about his physical condition as he awaits either two-time defending champion Sinner in Friday’s semi-final. Asked how his body is holding up, Djokovic kept it simple.
“I had a blister that needed to be looked at and retaped,” Djokovic said. “That’s what I did last match and now. That’s the biggest of my concerns, to be honest. I don’t have any other major issues.
“You always have some minor issues with your body, at least for me every single day. But major issues? No. Thankfully, that’s still not posing a challenge for me and an obstacle in order for me to be able to play and move around the way I want to.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]