Having avoided a banana skin against home favourite Alex de Minaur, Jannik Sinner moves on to the Australian Open semi-finals where he can look forward to a showdown with Ben Shelton on Friday.
World number one Sinner proved too strong for De Minaur in the semi-finals, overcoming illness to beat the Sydney star 6-3 6-2 6-1.
Next the Italian faces Shelton, with the American reaching the last four of this Grand Slam event thanks to a 6-4 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7-4) against Italy's Lorenzo Sonego.
The home crowd was hoping for an upset in the quarter-finals but Sinner showed his class to overcome De Minaur in Melbourne.
Having now lost to Sinner in all of their 10 meetings, De Minaur admitted he struggled to find flaws in the Italian’s game.
"Right now my worst match-up on tour is Jannik. The head-to-head doesn't lie," said De Minaur.
"In these types of conditions where it's a little bit colder and you can't really get the ball out of his strike zone, he can just unload and not miss. It's tough."
While it was the end of the line for De Minaur, Sinner can take plenty of positives into his next match against Shelton.
Shelton might be the 11.00 underdog going into Friday’s encounter with 1.05 favourite Sinner but the American has beaten the current world number one before.
The very first time these players crossed paths was at the ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai in the last 16 of the competition back in 2023.
However, Sinner has won all of their following four meetings, including three wins in 2024 against the 22-year-old for Atlanta.
Another match is in store for Shelton but he might well feel like he has nothing to lose after reaching the semi-final of a Grand Slam event for just the second time after reaching the last four of the 2023 US Open before defeat to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
Read more tennis previews on site
Jannik Sinner - 1.05
Ben Shelton - 11.00
View the full market and more odds for Jannik Sinner v Ben Shelton on site.
This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.