Lorenzo Sonego had a dream of reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open 2025, but his dream was shattered by the serve and power of Ben Shelton. The Italian achieved his best result at Slam level by reaching the quarterfinals. Shelton found a key to victory by limiting the number of errors in the important moments of the match.
“I’m happy with my attitude, my attitude on the court and how I experienced it. I tried to give everything I had in every match and I have no regrets, and this is very important. I made many improvements: in the return, in the backhand, I became more aware of my tennis. My game is not perfect, but we are on the right path because there is still room for improvement from a tactical point of view to make me increasingly competitive,” said Sonego in a press conference.
The Italian has no doubts that Jannik Sinner, Shelton’s next opponent, will be able to find a way to win the match and reach the final for the second consecutive year.
“Jannik will know what to do since he has played and won against him many times. Surely being able to neutralize the serve gives you an advantage and Sinner is one of the best in the world in return,” he explained.
Jannik Sinner© Roland Garros/fair use
“Other than the serve, I controlled the game. Today Ben made fewer errors than usual and made very few mistakes compared to other times I’ve seen him play. He was very solid, he never gave me rhythm because he played sometimes backhanded, sometimes a slightly higher ball, other times a fast racket so it was difficult to get into rhythm. Then, in the third set, when I started hitting a little more, being more proactive, the game definitely changed,” he added.
Sonego, despite the defeat, can and must be satisfied with the path he experienced in Australia and look to the future with optimism. It is in fact a tournament that could provide him with new awareness in this sort of second career; a second career in which he will be able to write other important pages of his personal history in the world of tennis.
Tennis World USA