{"id":395098,"date":"2026-01-28T14:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395098\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:07","slug":"sinner-set-for-toughest-challenge-in-semi-final-against-djokovic-after-swatting-shelton-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395098\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinner set for \u2018toughest challenge\u2019 in semi-final against Djokovic after swatting Shelton | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner says his semi-final meeting with Novak Djokovic<\/a> presents one of the toughest challenges in tennis after defeating Ben Shelton on Wednesday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the toughest challenges we have in our sport. It\u2019s great to have Novak playing at this very, very high level. It\u2019s a Grand Slam, it\u2019s always very difficult against Novak. Let\u2019s see what\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner\u2019s 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 quarter-final victory over the seventh seed extended his commanding record against Shelton to 9-1, with Sinner winning 22 consecutive sets since the 23-year-old American won their first meeting. Such dominance over one of the best young players in the world indicates just how far ahead Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are of the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

Since a brief hiccup in his third round match against Eliot Spizzirri, where he suffered from cramps in hot conditions, Sinner has not put a foot wrong. The second seed\u2019s stratospheric level marks a stark contrast to Djokovic\u2019s, who was trailing by two sets against the fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti before the Italian was forced to retire<\/a> at 6-4, 6-3, 1-3 due to a thigh injury.<\/p>\n

Sinner has not lost to Djokovic since saving triple match point against the Serb in their 2024 Davis Cup semi-final, winning five matches in a row and clinching their past three meetings in straight sets: \u201cI lost to him I think four or five in a row, so, yeah, he\u2019s just playing on such a high level right now, along with Carlos. They\u2019re the two best players in the world,\u201d said Djokovic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, absolute favourite, but you never know. Hopefully I can deliver my A-game for that matchup, because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to be needed at least to have a chance. I wasn\u2019t playing close to my best today, so I\u2019m going to have to change that around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton has lost his past nine matches against Jannik Sinner. Photograph: Fred Lee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

This victory also extended a number of other winning records for Sinner. He is now the fifth player in the open era to reach six consecutive grand slam semi-finals and the 24-year-old is on a 20-match winning streak, the second-longest of his career. As the two-time defending champion, he has now also won 23 consecutive matches at the Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Shelton, this tournament represented another positive step forward as he reached his fifth grand slam quarter-final and it again took one of the best players in the world to defeat him. Despite his disappointment immediately after the defeat, Shelton believes he will eventually close the gap on Sinner and inflict real damage on the four-time grand slam champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting to the point now where I\u2019m getting stopped up by the toughest challenge in the game for the most part, and I do think that I\u2019m close to bringing it all together,\u201d said Shelton. \u201cI think it\u2019s just going to take that one time where I do it to kind of get me over the hump. It\u2019s always been that way for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly 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\u2019m untouchable. I guarantee the other guys at the top feel the exact same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner says his semi-final meeting with Novak Djokovic presents one of the toughest challenges in tennis after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-395098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}