Jannik Sinner. (AP Photo)
The Times of India in Melbourne: After two-hours and 36-minutes in the middle – breaking down Ben Shelton ‘s incendiary play while battling cramps in the third set — world No.1 Jannik Sinner turned to his team when the American’s backhand found the bottom of the net at match point. The world No.1 came through the Australian Open semi-final 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-2, making his second successive final here, in a match in which Shelton’s level rode the roller-coaster, the 22-year-old had 55 unforced errors which shouldn’t sum the match for him, but it does. The left-handed Shelton stepped up to the plate superbly, matching the world No.1 shot for shot, meeting flat with flatter, spin with slice and pace with power, for 71-minutes and 94 points it was hard to pick the world No.1 and the 20th ranked player apart. The 22-year-old American broke early for a 2-0 lead, but the defending champion hit back and levelled at 2-2 even though he looked anything but settled on the court. Then when the top seed jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, it showed that Shelton of the sparkling talent was still relatively new in the pro game, given that he took a flight out of the United States for the first time two years ago when he made the quarterfinals here on his tournament debut. From ‘let’s go, Benny let’s go’, to shouts of ‘Come on Shelton make America great again’, there was fair support for the world No.1 too, with shouts of ‘Come on Janeeeek!’ lending to the carnival atmosphere.
Sinner grit his teeth and clenched his fist. It was that kind of a performance. It was Shelton then who broke in the 11th game and looked set to wrap up the set in the following game with two set points on his serve, but Sinner broke and took hold of the tie-break and the match. Shelton, who had the trainer work on his quads at the end of the second set, had the crowd on his side. Shelton had chances to break the Sinner serve in the second and fourth games of the third sets, but it was the Italian, battling cramps, who broke in the fifth game. At the change of ends, Sinner got his hamstring attended to by the physio. Sinner, clearly struggling with movement, decided to swing at everything and broke at love, before serving out the match.