Novak Djokovic hits a return during the men's singles quarterfinal against Flavio Cobolli at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Britain, on July 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)LONDON, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic battled past Italy's Flavio Cobolli in a hard-fought match on Wednesday, securing his place in the Wimbledon semifinals, where he will face Jannik Sinner in a highly anticipated showdown.The Serbian star, chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title, rallied from a set down to defeat Cobolli 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.Djokovic converted six of his 12 break points, while Cobolli's 44 unforced errors - double Djokovic's 22 - proved costly.Top seed Sinner overcame lingering discomfort from an elbow injury to defeat American Ben Shelton 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.Jannik Sinner hits a return during the men's singles quarterfinal against Ben Shelton on July 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)The 23-year-old Italian had injured his right elbow after slipping during his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov on Monday. Wearing a protective sleeve, Sinner showed little sign of trouble as he controlled the match against Shelton.After the match, he admitted trying to ignore the injury during play. "When you are in a match with a lot of tension, you try not to think about it.""It has improved a lot from yesterday to today. Yesterday my day was very short on the practice court," he added.Friday's semifinal will be a rematch of their 2023 encounter, which Djokovic won in straight sets.The other men's semifinal will feature world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz against fifth seed Taylor Fritz.Belinda Bencic hits a return during the women's singles quarterfinal against Mirra Andreeva on July 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)In the women's draw, 18-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva's impressive run came to an end with a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) loss to Switzerland's Belinda Bencic.The 35th-ranked Swiss, a former Olympic champion, will now face eighth seed Iga Swiatek, who booked her semifinal place with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Russia's Liudmila Samsonova.The other semifinal will see world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka take on American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova. ■
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