After battling past Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner needed less than two hours to knock out Alex de Minaur in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Jannik Sinner (Image via X)
Jannik Sinner took less than two hours to dismantle Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinal to breeze into another Australian Open semifinal. After denying the Aussie his first Grand Slam semifinal berth, Sinner talked about the pneumonia rumors.
In the fourth round, the 23-year-old struggled quite badly throughout the match he played against Holger Rune, and even took a long medical timeout. There were concerns about his health and whether the illness would again hamper him from giving his best against De Minaur.
We did blood tests after the match against Holger, and everything was solid, everything ok. It can happen that you don’t feel very well on certain days. Today (Wednesday) I woke up feeling much better. I told my team straight away that I felt good tonight. Obviously, playing without heat helps me, especially when you don’t feel very well.
Jannik Sinner said at the press conference
Sinner also said that he still doesn’t feel ‘perfectly well’ but is hoping to get better in a few days. Following his win against De Minaur, the defending champion extended his winning streak on hard-court Grand Slam tournaments to 19 matches.
Jannik Sinner has scheduled the semifinal match against Ben Shelton on January 24. The American, who reached the last four at Melbourne Park for the first time (his second in Major events), defeated Lorenzo Sonego in four sets in the quarterfinals. Shelton has revealed a plan he would implement to beat the two-time Grand Slam champion.
The upcoming match will be the Italian’s sixth match on the tour against Shelton. In their previous five meetings, the World No.1 came out on top on four occasions, with the 22-year-old registering the lone victory in their first meeting in the fourth round of the 2023 Shanghai Masters.
Their last clash was also in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters which Sinner won. Last year in the Australian Open, Shelton was defeated in the third round.
