Sinner The Winner
It was some good solid tennis from the World No .1 and defending Champion Jannik Sinner on display at the Rod Laver Arena. Nothing fancy, nothing dramatic, but just great defence from the Italian. Ben Shelton, though swashbuckling could not display the kind of consistency required and succumbed in 3 sets, in the Semis of the Australian Open.
Straight Sets For The Champion
Sinner won 7-6,6-2,6-2 and qualified to defend his crown against Alexander Zverev in the Final on Sunday.
Shelton Had His Chances
Ben Shelton came out all guns blazing. With a mighty serve and a booming forehand, the left-hander had two set points in the first set, but failed to convert. Sinner pushed the first set to the tie-breaker and won hands down.
Sinner’s Impregnable Defence
Sinner then wore down Shelton more mentally than physically as he defended with aplomb. He just kept the ball in play and as the rallies increased so did the errors from Shelton. Sinner had only to focus on the return of serve and once he did that with regularity, Shelton had no answers.
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The Champion Played Smartly Too
Sinner played smartly too, avoiding the Shelton forehand. He deliberately kept the American engaged with his back hand to make his own life easy. Shelton looked dangerous with his serve and lovely, smooth, winding action which generated great pace. His forehand too, with his wippy action and lot of top spin, was hot to handle. But Kudos to Sinner, he kept it plain and simple and let his opponent make all the moves
Some Quick Work In The End
In the second set, Sinner won 4 games in a row and again in the third set from 2-2, Sinner aced 4 straight games to close out the match. You need to have a strong defence to be a great player, which was so rightly proved by Italian.
Zverev – Sinner To Clash For The Crown On Sunday
So another final for Sinner, who is slowly but surely taking over the mantle from the great Novak Djokovic. Zverev the world no 2, will not be an easy opponent. The tall German has all the shots in the book and is mentally a tough guy too. However, Sinner would be the favourite and Zverev, the challenger would be required to play out of his skin, to break the defences of the unflinching Italian.
A Quality match is expected on Sunday in the blue environs of the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Don’t miss it.
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