Jannik Sinner becomes youngest Italian male to reach Grand Slam semi-final in open era

He defeated Roman Safiullin of Russia in Wimbledon 2023 men's singles quarter-finals to achieve this feat.

Jannik Sinner has become the youngest Italian male tennis player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final. At 21 years and 329 days, Sinner beat Roman Safiullin of Russia at Wimbledon to achieve this feat. He leapfrogged Adriano Panatta's mark by exactly a year to make the record his own. Panatta had reached the milestone at Roland-Garros in 1973 when he was 22 years and 329 days old.

The 21-year-old achieved this feat after defeating Russian player Roman Safiullin 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 2023. The Italian world number 8 had previously reached the quarter-finals of all the grand slams but a spot higher was constantly evading the youngster.

Sinner has won seven ATP titles in singles and one in doubles. In 2020, he also became the youngest ATP title holder since 2008 by winning the Sofia Open 2020 title. Further Sinner went on to win the ATP next gen finals held in Milan, Italy.

He has trained alongside Riccardo Piatti, who is currently the coach of young Indian star Manas Dhamne - who recently became the first player born after 2007 to debut in ATP tour at Maharashtra Open. Although Sinner did not enjoy much success in junior setup, his adaptation to the senior level was exceptional reaching the top 100 of ATP singles ranking in 2019 aged 17. He went on to bag the ATP Newcomer of the year award for consistent performance in the 2019 season.

Road to semi-finals at Wimbledon 2023

The eighth seed started the tournament on a high winning the opening round encounter in straight sets against Argentinian Juan Manuel Cerundolo. He had a favourable draw in the following rounds and has not met a seeded player yet - till the quarter-finals. Of the five matches he played so far, only two matches have gone above three sets - against Quentin Halys in R3 and Roman Safiullin in the quarters.

Next up, Jannik Sinner is set to face world number two and record 23-time grand slam winner Novak Djokovic for a place in the final.