American Ben Shelton believes he’s close to breaking through at Grand Slam level despite going down in straight sets to world No. 1 and defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner in the semifinals on Friday night.

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The 22-year-old had two set points in the first set on his own serve but rued his inability to close it out, after which Sinner pulled away for a comfortable 7-6(2) 6-2 6-2 victory and a place in the final for the second year in a row.  

“I know I’m close,” 21st seed Shelton said. “I know my level’s close. I know I have a lot of the stuff that I need. I certainly believe in myself. I just think that the reps against those guys, the consistency of playing those guys, playing a lot of matches in a week or a couple weeks, that will be the goal this year for me.

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“I think that those guys … Sinner, [Carlos] Alcaraz, Novak [Djokovic], the guys who have been dominating in the slams over the last two years … on their bad days they’re still winning in three sets, winning in four sets. They figure it out.

“I’m getting closer to being able to do that. Not having a good serving day or serving week and having a great tournament is a huge positive for me. It’s like being able to recognise the flaws in what I did, in my game, against some of these guys, being able to go back to the drawing board. It gives me a lot of confidence.”