Jannik Sinner’s elbow passes the test as top seed swats aside Ben Shelton

Jannik Sinner stepped on to Centre Court not knowing if his injured elbow would hold up to facing Ben Shelton.

It turns out the top seed need not have worried as he dismantled Shelton in straight sets to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals, where he will face seven-time champion Novak Djokovic.

World number one Sinner, wearing a protective sleeve on his racket arm, was still at his clinical best as he ran out a 7-6 (2) 6-4 6-4 winner.

He had cancelled a scheduled hour-long practice session on Tuesday after bashing his elbow in a fall during his dramatic fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov.

The problem had badly affected his serve on Monday night, with Dimitrov looking set to knock the Italian out until he was struck down by injury.

“Yesterday I played 20 minutes without serving and not hitting 100 per cent,” he said.

“But in another way, I always try to put myself in the position at least to go out there and try. I had quite good feelings in the warm-up today.

A breathless rally finished in style by @janniksin