LONDON: Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Italy’s Flavio Cobolli to enter the Wimbledon 2025 semifinals on Wednesday.
The Serb outlasted Cobolli in four sets and notched up a 6-7[6], 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 to enter his 14th semifinal at the grass-court Grand Slam.
He will face Jannik Sinner in the second semifinal on Friday.
Djokovic, meanwhile, will be appearing in his 52nd major semifinal, which ties Chris Evert for the most by any man or woman in the Open era.
Not everything went smoothly for Djokovic, who served for the opening set at 5-3 but got broken at love. He later was a point from owning that set before Cobolli came through. And on his second match point, his right foot slid out from under him and he did the splits as he went down to the grass and landed on his stomach.
Two points later, though, the victory was complete.
It's the seventh straight Wimbledon where Djokovic has made the semifinals, matching Federer (2003-09) for the longest streak by any man since 1968.
World number one Jannik Sinner shrugged off any doubts about his injured elbow to reach semi-final for the second time with a clinical defeat of powerful American 10th seed Ben Shelton.
A high-octane contest on a muggy Court One was decided by slender margins with Italian Sinner seizing the few opportunities that came his way in ruthless fashion for a 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Sinner dropped two points on serve in the opening set but could make no impression on Shelton's booming delivery either before reeling off seven points to storm through the tiebreak.
Shelton continued slugging it out with the three-time Grand Slam champion but the American faltered at 4-5 in the second set, Sinner taking control as he converted just his second break point opportunity of the contest.
It was a repeat performance in the third set as Sinner applied the pressure in the 10th game and Shelton duly cracked, serving a double-fault before bashing a forehand long on match point after two hours and 19 minutes.
Sinner has now won an incredible 20 successive Tour-level matches against American players and his last 15 sets against Shelton who must be sick of the sight of him. Agencies
Most Major
Semifinal Appearances:
PLAYER MAJOR SEMIS
Novak Djokovic 52
Chris Evert 52
Roger Federer 46
Martina Navratilova 44
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