Jannik Sinner has finally set foot in the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at Wimbledon in the 2023 season.
In a bout that lasted 2 hours and 14 minutes, the eighth seed fought back after wasting a break in the second set against world number 92 Roman Safiullin. She raised her game level in the third and fourth sets before winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The tennis player, who has just turned 21 years old, is now the third Italian male tennis player to reach the Wimbledon semifinals after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960 and Matteo Berretini in 2021.
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“This means a lot to me,” Jannik Sinner said of reaching the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
“We put a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifices for moments like this. This means a lot to me. This is a very happy moment for me. I just try to play my game and every game tells a story. I feel happy to be in the semifinals.”
“It was a challenging match. I went ahead with a break in the second set and I was down mentally and it’s part of my game that we worked on a lot. I feel very happy with how I reacted in the next two sets. She is a very tough player to play against.”
This season, Safiullin made his Wimbledon debut and put in an offensive form to become the lowest-ranked male player to reach the quarter-finals in London since then world number 144 Nick Kyrgios in 2014.
The 25-year-old Safiullin, who had just one win on grass court before appearing in London this season, caused the Italian international trouble with his aggressive groundstrokes. She fired 27 winners and fought back from falling behind with a break in the second set to level the match. But she was unable to maintain the momentum against the Italian who broke six times to allow the Italian to dominate their head to head 2-0.
World number 8 Sinner, who is 37-10 this season, will next challenge defending champion Novak Djokovic for a place in the final. Until now, the Serbian tennis player has won their head to head with 2-0. The match this time will be a rematch of last season’s Wimbledon quarter-finals which the Serb won in five sets.
