Sheltons need for speed proves costly against Sinner

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LONDON - American Ben Shelton said he paid the price for trying to serve too fast after losing 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4 to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old left-hander cranked out some huge firepower as he tried to knock the ice-cool Sinner off his stride but in the big moments his big weapons failed him.

Top seed Sinner won seven successive points from 0-2 in the first set tiebreak, then broke Sheltons serve for the first time to capture the second set and repeated the trick as the 10th seed served to stay in the match.

You feel consistent pressure playing a guy like him, who returns as well as him throughout the match, Shelton, who was also beaten by Sinner in this years Australian Open semi-final and has now lost 15 successive sets to the Italian, said.

I think possibly trying to go a little bit too big on the first serve in those moments or hitting it too hard.

Being able to stay calm and keep my emotions the exact same and know that my normal service motion where I go after a first serve, its going to show up at 140mph on the clock.

Its not like when I go and hit my smooth service motion, its going to come off 122mph. If I go from a flat serve with a smooth motion, its going to come off 140, but chasing 147 sometimes in those moments is stupid.

Shelton did not do much wrong against world number one Sinner but said playing him was like being on fast-forward.

His ball speed is really high. Never seen anything like it. You dont see anything