It felt appropriate Jannik Sinner should achieve a major breakthrough at a tournament where he describes both the venue and surface as “special”.
The 21-year-old, appearing in his second straight Wimbledon quarterfinal and 15th Grand Slam main draw overall, went further than ever before thanks to a four-set win over Roman Safiullin on Wednesday.
Sinner has long been predicted to achieve great success, and the All England Club indeed does special things for his highly-rated game.
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His purely-struck, powerful hitting seems purpose-built for these lawns, and something amplified by the acoustics of Wimbledon’s two biggest show courts, where he has played the majority of his matches at the 2023 championships.
The crack of the ball off the young Italian’s strings is something that has gained traction on social media.
And it’s a brand of power-hitting that has seen him crunch 178 winners so far this tournament – an average of almost 36 per match.
After beating Safiullin 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-2, Sinner was told he was the youngest men’s Wimbledon semifinalist in 16 years.
At that point his next opponent was not known. Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev were in the throes of their quarterfinal battle on Centre Court, a match Djokovic went on to win.
Sinner was asked: “Does it make any difference to you, at this stage of a tournament, who the semifinal opponent is?”
The crowd laughed. Sinner did too.
They laughed because, obviously, it does matter when it’s Djokovic – a 23-time Grand Slam champion who has won the past four Wimbledons – up the other end of the court.
"I know Novak, he hasn't lost on Centre (Court) in 10 years, so it's gonna be for sure a tough one,” Sinner said, laughing again.
“But who knows? Maybe it's my day.”
Sinner’s status as the youngest man in the last four at Wimbledon since 2007 will last for one day, until the winner of the quarterfinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune – both 20 years old – is determined.
One month ago, in the Roland Garros semifinals, Alcaraz attempted to upstage Djokovic – a player almost 16 years his senior – and fell in four sets.
Now, it’s Sinner’s turn, at the same stage of Wimbledon, in a men’s semifinal featuring the largest age gap in the tournament’s Open era history.
"I'm just trying to rest, (and then) trying to enjoy maybe the most important match until now (in my career), so it's gonna be a special moment,” he said.
Sinner is realistic that conquering Djokovic at Wimbledon remains one of the sport’s toughest assignments.
But he came close last year, leading Djokovic by two-sets-to-love before the Serb recovered to win in five.
A year on from that near-miss, Sinner believes he has developed well.
“For sure physically I have improved. I'm much stronger. I can stay on court for many hours without suffering,” he said.
“I think also game-wise or tennis-wise I feel better. If I have to play the slice, I can play now without thinking. Before was always a little bit different. I can go to the net knowing that I have good volleys.
“Last year I played a very good match against him. I have learned about it. Hopefully I can show this also on the court.
“I'm going to stay or I'm going to stick with my game plan in my mind, and hopefully I can execute it in the best possible way.
“So let's see.”