Wimbledon 2023: Sinner storms into maiden Grand Slam semis

Italy`s Jannik Sinner returns the ball to Russia`s Roman Safiullin during their men`s singles quarter-finals tennis match on the ninth day of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London. Pic/AFP

Italy's Jannik Sinner stormed into his maiden semifinals at the Wimbledon here by beating unseeded Roman Safiullin in four sets in a quarterfinal clash.

The Italian eighth seed survived a fright when he lost the second set before fighting back to win the next two sets, emerging a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory in two hours and 14 minutes at No.1 Court.

The 21-year-old Sinner thus became the third Italian man to reach the last four at Wimbledon, joining Nicola Pietrangeli (1960) and 2021 finalist Matteo Berrettini.

In a clash that witnessed some heavy hitting, Sinner broke Safiullin's serve six times to improve to 2-0 in his head-to-head series with Safiullin, who was making his debut at Wimbledon and produced an array of attacking shots to become the lowest-ranked man to advance to the quarterfinals since then-World No. 144 Nick Kyrgios in 2014.

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Sinner, the World No.8 is 37-10 in the season and will meet the winner of the match between World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and seventh seed Andrey Rublev on Friday. Djokovic had rallied from two sets to love down to defeat Sinner in the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year.

"It means a lot to me," Sinner said on reaching his first major semifinal. "We have put a lot of work in and a lot of sacrifices for this moment. It means a lot to me. It is a very nice moment for me. I just try to play my tennis and each match has its own story. I am happy to be in the semifinals."

"It was tough," Sinner said. "I was a break up in the second set and I got down mentally and this is a part we are working on a lot. I am very happy with how I reacted in the next couple of sets. He is a very tough player to play against."

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