Ben Shelton blasted his way into his second Grand Slam semifinal on Wednesday with an entertaining four-set victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego, who was appearing in his first quarterfinal at this level.
Both had made the most of a section of the draw that had been blown wide open by early defeats for top-10 stars Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, and it was the 22-year-old American who grasped the opportunity of a first AO semifinal with a tight 6-4 7-5 4-6 7-6(4) win in just under four hours.
Despite defeat, Sonego will jump 20 places to inside the top 40 on Monday and certainly left his mark on the big Rod Laver Arena crowd with two hotshots that will stick in the memory.
The first – an incredible reflex volley at full stretch that was loaded with so much backspin that the ball bounced back onto his side of the court – might well go on to be the shot of the tournament. The 29-year-old from Turin was at it again early in the fourth set with a ‘skyhook’ forehand pass off a lob.
“I feel relieved right now,” Shelton admitted afterwards. “Shoutout to Lorenzo Sonego, because that was some ridiculous tennis.”
Shelton will no doubt relish the chance to test himself against the best player in the world on Friday when he returns to face defending champion Jannik Sinner, after the Italian eased past the last remaining Aussie Alex de Minaur during the RLA night session.
The Italian started the match quickly and made it 10 wins out of 10 – and 20 sets in a row – against the ‘Demon’ with a routine 6-3 6-2 6-1 scoreline.
“On days like these when you break early in each set it’s a little bit easier,” said Sinner.
As impressive as the Italian 23-year-old was, nobody can match world No.2 Iga Swiatek’s smooth passage so far.
The Polish five-time Grand Slam champion raced past American eighth seed Emma Navarro 6-1 6-2, and has dropped just 14 games in five matches.
Only three players have lost fewer games en route to an Australian Open semifinal in the Open era – Maria Sharapova (nine), Monica Seles (12) and Steffi Graf (13).
“I'm happy that I'm kind of playing my level here,” the second seed said.
“Last [two] years my journey here finished at fourth and third round, so for sure I feel more confident now.”
It is another American, Madison Keys, who is faced with the daunting challenge of trying to stop Swiatek in Thursday’s night session semifinals after she came back to beat Elina Svitolina.
The No.14 seed moved through to the third AO semifinal of her career with a 3-6 6-3 6-4 success, a tour-leading 12th win of the year and a 10th on the bounce for the 29-year-old, who reached the same stage of the tournament in 2015 and 2022.
It will be an all-Aussie mixed doubles final after Wednesday's two semifinals were wrapped up at Margaret Court Arena.
Two wildcard teams came through those semis as Kim Birrell and John-Patrick Smith beat all-British team Henry Patten and Olivia Nicholls 7-6(2) 6-2.
Fellow Australians Olivia Gadecki and John Peers took out Kiwi second seeds Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus 6-4 6-4.