*Sinner 6-3 2-0 De Minaur Down 30-15, De Minaur lands a return on to the tootsies and tries to noise things up, then actually hits it harder from the back, eliciting the error! And that makes sense: the Aussie can’t wait it out, because if he does, a winner will soon come; his only hope is to seize the initiative and go for stuff, and break point up, his time is now. But he can’t return a serve down the middle – he really ought to have done – and from there, Sinner closes out, sealing the consolidation with a cunning drop.

Sinner 6-3 1-0 De Minaur* De Minaur makes 15-0 then does everything he can in the next rally, dictating, chasing, sending Sinner to the corner … and getting passed cross-court by a brilliant forehand winner. And Sinner outlasts him in the next point too, making 15-30, before seizing the next rally … only to overhit a forehand having opened the space down the line. The Aussie is busting his ass just to stay close and is soon down break point, netting a forehand after a fine return put him in trouble, and when he loses a rat-a-tat-tat at the net, he’s a set and a break down. This is not, I’m afraid, a contest; or at least, it’s close … until it isn’t.

*Sinner 6-3 De Minaur Good approach from Sinner, well chased by De Minaur, who flaps a backhand down the line that the Italian lets go … and it drops in! But it’s soon 30-15, big forehands followed by a serve out wide and clean-up backhand. Another big serve out wide follows, this time backed up by a forehand that raises two set points, and a service winner does the necessary. This is ominous, the champ doing what he does, which is too good for what De Minaur does.

Sinner 5-3 De Minaur* De Minaur is holding easily now, a lovely backhand down the line making 15-0, then a second serve into the body cramping Sinner. And the champ then nets a backhand; he’ll now have to serve for the first set.

*Sinner 5-2 De Minaur Er, no. Sinner holds to love and looks so calm. He knows he can’t really lose this, and to feel that in a grand slam semi, as defending champ and world no 1, must make one extremely chill.

Sinner 4-2 De Minaur* It’s an unfortunate thing really, but there are players not as good as De Minaur – Ben Shelton, say – who have a better chance of winning a slam than he does because if a big game hits at the right time, it might be able to beat another big game. And the likes of Shelton can work on or hide their weaknesses an unpowered game will forever be underpowered. I guess that might be hard to take, because it seems so unfair, or perhaps because it’s almost a fact it might be relaxing, like accepting gravity means we can’t fly. Yeah, right: we might mot be able to, but we still want to. De Minaur holds easily enough, but can he break?

*Sinner 4-1 De Minaur Now then! Demon makes 0-15 then tries a short slice to bring Sinner forward, the 22nd shot of the rally, and the response goes long; that might be a tactic, he must’ve been reading the blog at change of ends. Problem is, hitting the perfect slice is so difficult, and when you can bomb down consecutive service-winners, as Sinner does, it barely matters. And from there, the champ serves out easily, consolidating the break; he looks close to unstoppable out there.

Sinner 3-1 De Minaur* At 30-0, the longest rally of the match so far, De Minaur coming to the net having worked the opportunity, only to net his backhand volley … and a netted forehand next point means he’s in a spot a bother. Ach, another netted forehand follows and at 30-40, that missed putaway suddenly looks expensive. But though Sinner doesn’t properly get after a second serve, allowing Demon to make deuce, after saving advantage he takes it for himself, fantastic deep hitting from the back just too much for his opponent to handle, then they go again and again it’s De Mianur who wilts, netting a backhand. That’s the break, and so far this is going exactly as it always goes with no sense there’s anything that can be done to make things different.

*Sinner 2-1 De Minaur Fantastic de-fence from De-mon as Sinner unleashes, digging out a two-handed volley the finish off and make 30-0; an ace follows. He does then net a backhand, but a further ace secures the hold, and the champ looks serene out there.

Sinner 1-1 De Minaur* Sinner is wearing primrose on his top half, white on his bottom which, given all the gear one might go for, is both surprising and representative of his even character. I fear that if I were world no 1 and even if I wasn’t, 1, I’d be making early-90s Agassi look tame. OK, fear is strong, but you never know! Demon holds to 30 and they’re just feeling each other out at the moment, but there may be a problem in the crowd as the umpire is on the phone.

*Sinner 1-0 De Minaur (denotes server) Cheers as Sinner, welcomed on to court as enthusiastically as De Minaur, nets a backhand for 15-all; #thehappyslam, #classytouch etc etc. From there, though, the champ serves out with no alarms and no surprises.

Sinner has the balls, ready … play.

Darren Cahill, Sinner’s coach, says he’s much better than on Monday, when he beat Holger Rune despite being crook. I wonder how Rune’s ego handled that defeat, because like all of us he has one, it’s just more pronounced than the average.

They think the body-serve might cramp Sinner and push him over the baseline, so he can’t hit the ball on the rise, but that’s all they’ve got really. But it’s time to actually see because the players are coming out, and what a moment this must be for De Minaur, marching out in front of his home crowd, the eyes of Australia upon him. He’s ready for this, I think, but is his best good enough?

In the Eurosport studio, Tim notes that Lleyton Hewitt was a problem for him in match-up; Mats that he struggled against Boris Becker and Pete Sampras on fast courts. Er, you and everyone else ever to play the game, old mate. But can they find a route to victory for Demon?

I guess Demon has to keep him moving – if he plants his feet it’s over – serve as well as he can, hit his drops well, and hope Sinner has an off-day.

Anyone? Bueller? Bue-ller?

How do you beat Jannik Sinner? Well, if you’re a creative genius with power, or a complete machine, that helps, but what if you’re not Carlos Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic? Then what?

In the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek beat Emma Navarro 1 and 2; Madison Keys beat Elina Svitolina 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Those two meet tomorrow following Aryna Sabalenka v Paulo Badosa, and I can’t wait for either. Keys has a massive game and her top level is serious; if she’s on, she’s every chance of beating Swiatek, having found better control and patience without compromising power.

Badosa, meantime, has a huge game and might finally have worked out how to manage it. She’ll have seen how Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova outhit Sabalenka yesterday and fancy she can do the same, without starting slowly and fading at the end.

Or, in other words, the draw has been kind to us.

Back to Shelton, he’s a fantastic athlete with a brilliant mentality, excellent serve and nuclear forehand. The problem he has, though, is his backhand – Coach Calv notes “there’s some mad stat that if you make him play one the first shot of a rally, he only wins the point 15% of the time or something.”

I’d actually back him to beat De Minaur; it’s hard to see what he has that Sinner doesn’t.

Next on Laver: Jannik Sinner (1) v Alex de Minaur (8).

“Shout out Lorenzo Sonego because that was some ridiculous tennis,” he begins, laughing. He’s really happy to be through and win his first match on Laver, one of his favourites in his career.

He accepts that if he meets Demon next the crowd can boo him, chuck stuff at him and all the rest, and expects the same if he’s against the world no 1.

Then, of course, he finishes with a fraternal “Let’s go baby!” and he’s so much fun; he’s got such competitive charisma.

Wild celebrations from Shelton, as you might expect, and here he is…

Ben Shelton (21) beats Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 7-5 4-6 7-6(4)

A big serve, a return into the net, and at 6-4, Shelton has two match points!

Shelton hurls himself after a drop, somehow finding the strength to get under it and flip it back – Sonego puts away easily – before splattering the hoardings in crowd-pleasing fashion. He does press-ups to bank the laughs, then Sonego misses a volley and at 5-4, he’s two serves away from the last four!

Sonego just won’t go away and more than that, he’s playing well; we’re 3-3 in the breaker.

Email! “I know that World No 1 vs Local Boy is the big draw today, but the attendance at the Shelton-Sonego quarter-final is embarrassing,” emails Keith Shaw. “Do you know how the ticketing works?”

I do not, but I imagine the relative emptiness is because day-sesh people have chipped. At Wimbledon, you have queues to fill the gaps, but maybe they don’t operate that system; maybe there’s no demand for it.

And Shelton serves out to 15 for his breaker.

Sonego survives a break point to hold for 6-5 in the fourth, guaranteeing himself a tiebreak. This is a proper physical tussle.

But first, we’ve the end of Ben Shelton (21) 6-4 7-5 4-6 5-5 Lorenzo Sonego. Good!

Preamble