By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) – Eighth seed Jannik Sinner reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second successive year as he broke the stubborn resistance of unseeded Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan with a 7-6(4) 6-4 6-3 victory on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Italian’s progress was relatively routine although he looked tetchy at times as he twice got involved in arguments with umpire Marijana Veljovic.
He has never gone beyond the quarter-finals at any of the four Grand Slams but now has a great opportunity to break new ground with 92nd-ranked Russian Roman Safiullin up next.
Galan, ranked 85th in the world, was solid throughout the opening set and Sinner looked rattled in the tiebreak when forced to replay a point after winning a Hawkeye challenge.
He did not allow his debate with Veljovic to distract him too long though as he took the opening set.
Sinner’s mood was hardly helped as he dropped serve at the start of the second set and then squandered five break points in the next game, again having words with the match official.
Four more break points went begging in Galan’s next service game but Sinner did finally get back on level terms for 4-4 and broke serve again to move two sets clear.
The third set was more straightforward as the Italian made it through to the second week.
Sinner, who has dropped only one set so far, is the first Italian man to reach the quarter-finals twice at Wimbledon.
“Today was a tough day. I was not feeling great on the court but I managed to win the most important points,” he said. “Usually I’m calm but sometimes it happens, there were some tough calls on my side.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
