Reigning champion Jannik Sinner faces 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic in a blockbuster Australian Open men’s singles semi-final after taming Ben Shelton in straight sets yesterday, while the two Taiwanese in the women’s doubles both exited, leaving Chen Kuan-shou in the junior boys singles as the nation’s last representative in Melbourne.
Sinner, the second-seeded Italian, swatted aside the eighth-seeded American 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He has dropped only one set in moving ominously into the last four.
Earlier, Djokovic was the first to admit he was lucky to be back in the Australian Open semi-finals instead of Lorenzo Musetti.
Photo: AFP
Despite being two sets down and slowed by a blister on his foot, the 24-time major winner won their quarter-final when fifth-seeded Musetti retired with an injury.
Musetti took the first two sets 6-4, 6-3, but needed a medical timeout for treatment on his upper right leg after being broken in the third game of the third.
Djokovic, who was leading the set 3-1 when his opponent withdrew, is to continue his bid for an 11th Australian title and a record 25th major, but said that he was lucky this time.
Photo: CNA
“It happened to me a few times, but being in the quarters of a Grand Slam, two sets to love up and being in full control — I mean, so unfortunate,” for Musetti, Djokovic said in an on-court TV interview. “He should have been a winner today.”
In the women’s singles, Jessica Pegula said she would have to “crack the code” of Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals after dismantling error-strewn Amanda Anisimova in an all-American showdown.
The sixth seed won 6-2, 7-6 (7/1) to end fourth-seeded Anisimova’s hopes of a third Grand Slam final in a row.
Photo: AFP
Anisimova racked up 44 unforced errors to Pegula’s 21.
Pegula made a scintillating start at Rod Laver Arena, breaking Anisimova’s serve to love and surging to a 5-1 lead inside 20 minutes.
Anisimova showed the first signs of frustration as she whacked the soles of her trainers with her racket.
Photo: AP
Pegula’s serve was proving a major weapon and she nailed the first set in 30 minutes as she fired down her sixth ace.
The 24-year-old Anisimova cut an increasingly frustrated figure as her unforced error count mounted and she had her head in her hands as the quarter-final threatened to get away from her.
She broke Pegula’s serve in the second set, but was broken back straight away with her fourth double fault of the contest.
Three more double faults quickly followed and Pegula raced away in the tiebreaker as Anisimova’s temper boiled over.
Anisimova said that she would “lose her mind” for a couple of days after the defeat.
“I would say as a tennis player, you can be very irrational, and obviously I’m very grateful for the life that I have, the career I have, but you kind of lose your mind after matches like this,” she said. “I think that after a day like today, I’m going to completely lose all sense of rationality for, like, 48 hours.”
Next up for Pegula is Kazakh fifth seed Rybakina, who defeated second-seeded Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in their quarter-final.
The other semi-final at Melbourne Park is to be between world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and 12th-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei exited in their respective quarter-finals.
Wu and partner Eri Hozumi of Japan were beaten 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 by Elise Mertens of Belgium and Zhang Shuai of China, while Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani defeated Hsieh and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5).
The departure of Hsieh and Wu left Chen as the only Taiwanese left at Melbourne Park.
The 17-year-old on Sunday beat Brazil’s Leonardo Storck Franca in the first round of the junior boys’ singles, winning 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 34 minutes.
In the second round on Tuesday he eliminated Australian Jake Dembo 6-2, 6-3 to set up a match today against Nikita Bilozertsev of Ukraine, with the winner earning a spot in the quarter-finals.
In the junior boys’ doubles alongside partner Flynn Thomas of Switzerland, he lost in round one on Sunday 6-2, 7-6 (9/7) to Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga of Colombia and Vihaan Reddy of the US.
The left-handed Chen has an ITF Juniors Singles ranking of 13.
The Tainan native on Facebook on Thursday last week thanked the ITF team for “giving me the opportunity to participate in the 2026 GSPDP [Grand Slam Player Development Programme] ITF U18 team to play in Australia.”
The first stop on the GSPDP was the J300 Traralgon in Victoria state, where Chen was runner-up in the singles and doubles. He lost 6-1, 6-2 against Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil in the singles after only previously having dropped a single set through the semi-finals.
In the doubles, Chen and Thomas were beaten 6-0, 6-4 by Miguel and Slovenia’s Ziga Sesko.
“This has been an incredible week,” Chen said ahead of his run at the Australian Open.
The ITF-operated GSPDP and the ITF U18 touring team aim to “provide players from underrepresented nations and regions with greater access to top competition,” as well as “accelerating development for players aged 15 to 18 to transition to the professional circuit,” the ITF Web site says.
The program provides funding for its players, with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-chen receiving a US$25,000 grant this year.
No. 37 Lin also played at the Australian Open, beating Carrie-Anne Hoo of the US 6-2, 7-6 (12/10) in the first round of the junior girls’ singles on Saturday, but losing 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 to Zhang Ruien of China in the second round on Monday.
In the junior girls’ doubles, Maia Ilinca Burcescu of Romania and Kali Supova of Slovakia beat Lin and Hoo 6-4, 7-5 in the first round on Monday.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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