
Venue: The whole England Club Date: July 3-16 |
Scope: Live on BBC TV, radio and online with extensive coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Stuff, Connected TV and mobile apps. More coverage details here. |
Italian Jannik Sinner reached his first Grand Slam semi-final by defeating Russian Roman Safiullin at Wimbledon.
The highly-rated 21-year-old won 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-2, ending Safiullin’s impressive run on his SW19 debut.
Sinner had lost his four previous major quarter-finals but dominated after a wobble in the second set to claim his breakthrough victory.
The eighth seed will face either Novak Djokovic, whom he took out in five sets at last year’s event, or Andrey Rublev.
Sinner is also the youngest to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since 2007, although that record will be beaten by Carlos Alcaraz or Holger Rune, who contested their quarter-final on Wednesday.
“It means a lot to me,” Sinner said, after raising his arms as he sealed the victory.
“We put in a lot of work a lot, a lot of hours – a lot of sacrifices. It’s a great moment for me.”
After taking the first set with a break of serve, Sinner, a top junior skier, led 3-1 in the second before losing five straight games as Safiullin leveled.
The 25-year-old Russian, ranked 92nd in the world and looking to become the lowest-ranked player to reach the last four since 2008, was unable to make the last two sets a contest as Sinner regained the his calmness.
“I broke into second and was down a little bit,” Sinner said. “I was very happy with my reaction.”