{"id":679120,"date":"2026-07-07T20:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679120\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:10:11","slug":"jannik-sinner-powers-into-semi-final-after-ominous-display-against-struff-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679120\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner powers into semi-final after ominous display against Struff | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since coming through his first-round match here in five sets, Jannik Sinner has prioritised efficiency. His 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-3 win against Jan-Lennard Struff was the defending champion\u2019s<\/a> fourth consecutive victory in straight sets, keeping his powder dry and any potential problems with the heat at bay, just over five weeks since his physical meltdown at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for reminding me,\u201d he told the on-court interviewer, with a chuckle, when asked if he was at all concerned about high temperatures at Wimbledon<\/a>. \u201cWe worked a lot after Paris trying to understand what went wrong.\u201d He will play either Novak Djokovic or Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Sinner has not revealed whether his team actually found any answers. He was undoubtedly grateful to be off the court in just over two and a half hours but it was the manner in which he got the job done that was most efficient. He did have to save a set point in the second set but he also made sure that points were short, although Struff\u2019s style of play \u2013 big serve, big hitting \u2013 also lends itself to brevity.<\/p>\n

Almost 80% of the points were finished in four shots or fewer, and in that category, Sinner won 91-72, a 56% success rate. It was 17-18 in the 5-8 shot category and 6-5 in the 9+ zone. Dominating the 0-4 category is key to success, especially on grass.<\/p>\n

Struff had won three five-set matches to get to the quarter-finals for the first time at any of the grand slam tournaments and the German served brilliantly in the opening stages. To 5-5 in the first set, he had dropped just four points on serve but as so often happens against great players, the first time they get a sniff, they take their chance. Sinner broke in the 11th game and then served out the first set.<\/p>\n

The Italian broke for 2-1 in the second but suffered his only blip in the following game when he was broken back. Fluency was lacking a little, and Sinner had to come up with a big serve to save a set point at 4-5. But when the set reached the tie-break, he locked down to take it 7-4 and double his lead.<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev eased past Jiri Lehecka to reach the quarter-final. Photograph: Tolga Akmen\/EPA<\/p>\n

Sinner had a chance to break at 2-1 and 0-30 on the Struff serve at 3-2 but had to wait until 4-3 to finally take his chance, a big forehand winner doing the business. There was never any doubt he would serve it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I was serving quite intelligently today,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cAlso, how I handled important moments in that match because if you lose the second set, everything can happen again. Especially with big servers, you have less control.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like today was again a small step better because it was a very different opponent I faced until now. Big server here on grass is always tough. Happy about today\u2019s performance, and now of course I try to be as ready as I can for the semis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The world No 1\u2019s problems with heat and cramp have been well-documented and with no shade on No 1 Court until late in the third set, there might have been fears of a repeat. But Sinner said he felt fine against Struff. \u201cIt felt OK,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was warm, but nothing crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Australia, I feel like it\u2019s tougher because \u2026 with hard court it comes also from underneath. It was quite dry today, which is a big difference. When it\u2019s humid and warm, it\u2019s different again. But no, I felt quite comfortable today. It was warm, yes. It was similar I feel like to Paris maybe. But it was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev took a roundabout route into his first Wimbledon quarter-final as he completed a 6-4 7-5 3-6 7-6 (6) win against Jiri Lehecka. The match had been postponed at 3-3 in the third set on Monday night when the 11pm curfew was hit for the first time, and Zverev won only one point in three games on the resumption. But he prevailed in a fourth-set tie-break to finally make it into the last eight.<\/p>\n

The French Open champion<\/a> said: \u201cWho would\u2019ve thought it would\u2019ve taken me only 12 years to get here? I\u2019m incredibly happy and relieved to achieve that but, of course, I want to play three more matches here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since coming through his first-round match here in five sets, Jannik Sinner has prioritised efficiency. His 7-5, 7-6…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679120","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\/679120","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=679120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}