Melbourne, Jan 22 (IANS): World No. 1 Jannik Sinner cruised to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 quarterfinal triumph against home favourite Alex de Minaur to keep alive his hopes of lifting back-to-back titles at the hard-court major in Melbourne. Sinner, who entered the match having dropped just one set in nine previous ATP head-to-head meetings with De Minaur, motored to a one-hour, 48-minute victory with a clinical display of baseline hitting inside Rod Laver Arena as per ATP stats.

“I feel like today I was feeling everything. On days like this, when you break quite early in each set, it’s a little bit easier. He’s a tough competitor and an amazing player. We know each other quite well now. We’ve played each other so many times and we try to understand each other's game and try to prepare ourselves in the best possible way.

“These kinds of matches, they can go quickly, but also they can change very fast if I go down with my level a little bit and he takes opportunities. I’m very happy about my performance today,” said Sinner in his on-court interview.

The Italian finished the match having converted six of 10 break points he earned, according to Infosys Stats, while he dropped just 10 points on his delivery overall.

With his victory, Sinner extended his winning streak at hard-court Grand Slam events to 19 matches, following his Australian Open title run a year ago and his triumph at the 2024 US Open. The next challenge awaiting the 23-year-old Italian at Melbourne Park this year is a semifinal against Ben Shelton, who earlier defeated Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4).

Shelton is the second active American man to reach multiple major semi-finals after Frances Tiafoe and the second active man from his nation to reach the Aussie Open semis after Tommy Paul.