Wimbledon: Sinner passes Galan test to make quarter-finals for second year in a row

Jannik Sinner came through a testing encounter against Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan, winning 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-3 in what were three tightly-contested sets to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for a second consecutive year.

Despite emerging from the match without the drop of a set, the Italian was pushed hard by an opponent who played well above his ranking of 54 in the world.

Sinner was more animated than his usually ice-cool demeanour allows for, as the pressure of a first set tiebreak took its toll when an erroneous line call was replayed following the Italian’s challenge showing his ball had landed in.

The umpire deemed Galan’s shot to have been affected by the call, despite the fact that the line call came well after the Colombian had already dumped his retrieval into the net.

Nevertheless, Sinner was able to regain his composure and took the opening set.

Two close sets of tennis followed, with Sinner falling a break behind in the second, before recovering to win it 6-4.

From there, the Italian’s free-flowing tennis did most of the talking as a commanding lead never looked likely to be under threat, despite a spirited challenge from the impressive Colombian.

Sinner, ranked No 8, will play Russian Roman Safiullin next after he stunned an injured Shapovalov out on Court 2.

The 21-year-old Italian defeated Argentinian Juan Manuel Cerundolo (6-2, 6-2, 6-2), Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (7-5, 6-1, 6-2) and Frenchman Quentin Halys (3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds of The Championships, Galan, ranked No 85, beat Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, the No 24 seed (6-4, 6-3, 6-3), German qualifier Oscar Otte (6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3)) and Swede Mikael Ymer (6-2, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-1).

London (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 16.077.000, most recent results first):

• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Holger Rune
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Matteo Berrettini
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Novak Djokovic
• Roman Safiullin beat Denis Shapovalov (26): 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
• Andrey Rublev (7) beat Alexander Bublik (23): 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4