Jannik Sinner cruises past Jan-Lennard Struff to reach Wimbledon semi-finals

Jannik Sinner is the master of timing. Not just of a tennis shot, but how to make your way through to the latter stages of a major tournament. Do what is necessary, do not waste your energy, keep improving and get ready for the serious opposition. He even appears as though he has learned how to handle the heat.

After his unfortunate exit at the French Open, when the heatwave left him floundering against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, the defending champion progressed to the semi-final stage once again here, having apparently barely broken sweat. And this on a day when Jan-Lennard Struff, his hefty-serving German opponent, appeared to have had a bucket of water poured over his head within moments of arriving on a baking hot No 1 Court. But that is what winners do: they do not sweat the small stuff.

For Struff, on the other hand, this was a rare moment in the sun. Since a glorious season in 2018 when he reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals and the semi-finals at the US Open, this is the furthest the veteran German has gone in a major tournament. You could tell he was playing at a different level to his Italian opponent by a glance at the two players’ support teams up in the stands.

Sinner’s team – uniformed in identical kit of lime green shirts and blue peaked caps – moved as one, leaping to their feet in synchronised togetherness at every winner by their man. They looked, in their coordination, like the devotees of some weird sect. Struff’s bench, in contrast, was made up entirely of his mates from down the bierkeller. It is what comes, presumably, as the reward for being No 1 in the world as opposed to number 74.

Still, whatever the gap in remuneration, at 36 Struff looked keen to make a statement, his blunderbuss serve registering at more than 135mph, being in full bloom. In the first set the pair exchanged services, Struff usually dispatching his in double quick time, Sinner making harder work of things, three times being taken to deuce, often after making an entirely unforced error.

But here is the thing. Struff was not able to take advantage of his opponent’s early mistakes. Sinner may have faltered, but he never let the other man take advantage. It quickly became evident that Sinner was too wily, too experienced and too good. He knows precisely how to steer momentum, when to push ahead himself and when to put his foot on the throat of his opponent’s ambition.

So it was that he took the first set with a single break, then the second after a tie-break. He looked, as he steered things in his direction, as if he were enjoying himself out there. At one point, he waved back a fan who was shouting out their unrequited love between serves. You suspect that, had he been losing, his response would not have been as charming. But that is a champion for you.