(Wimbledon) Italian Jannik Sinner, 8e world player, qualified for his first Grand Slam semi-final by beating the Russian Roman Safiullin (92e) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at Wimbledon.
Quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the United States Open in 2022, Sinner has finally passed this milestone.
He becomes, for the time being, at 22, the youngest semi-finalist on the London lawn since 2007 and a certain Novak Djokovic whom he could find in the half if the world number 2 beats the Russian Andrey Rublev.
But he will not remain so for long: the winner of the quarter between Carlos Alcaraz (N.1 in the world) and Holger Rune (N.6), both 20 years old, will become one in his place.
“Anyway I’ll stay young and happy so at least let me enjoy it today,” he joked right after the game.
PHOTO HANNAH MCKAY, REUTERS
Roman Safiullin
“It means a lot to me because we put in a lot of work, a lot, a lot of hours, including off the courts, a lot of sacrifices to get to this moment”, he commented more seriously.
The Italian has in any case shown a lot of maturity against Safiullin, one of the surprises of this edition since he had only one victory in the main draw in three tournaments on this surface before Wimbledon.
Sinner, extremely solid on his commitment, mastered the first set well where he broke at 4-4 to pocket it on his serve.
He also ideally started the second set coming off at 3-1, but with first serve percentage dropping to 48%, he lost the next 5 games to find himself one set all.
“When I lost the second set, all I had to do was win the next two,” he said after the match, in the form of a joke.
“No, more seriously, it was obviously difficult. I faltered a bit mentally, it’s an area we’re working on a lot and I’m obviously very happy with the way I reacted over the last two rounds,” he added.
Again dominating on his serve – he conceded only one break point in the third and fourth sets – he used his greatest variety of shots to gain the upper hand over Safiullin who, although very combative, no longer made the weight.