Jannik Sinner advanced to his second successive Australian Open final as he overcame Ben Shelton with a convincing straight-set victory.

The world No 1 prevailed 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2 in the semi-final encounter to earn his fifth straight win over Shelton and improve his overall head-to-head record against the 22-year-old American to 5-1.

In a close opening set, Sinner twice came from a break down and staved off two set points with Shelton serving at 6-5 before dominating the tiebreak.

The 23-year-old Italian then broke the world No 20 twice in both the second and third sets as he surged into his third Grand Slam final.

Asked how he turned the first set around by Jim Courier, Sinner said: “Yeah, I don’t know.

“It was a very tough first set, but very crucial one and I felt like he was serving not at his best today, the percentage was not there where I guess he wanted to and I think we both actually returned better than we served.

“And you know, first sets are always very important, gives you a little bit of confidence. There was a bit of tension for both of us and I’m very happy how I handled the situation today. Happy to be back in the finals here.”

Sinner also confirmed the treatment he received from the physio during the third set was for cramping.

“No, just yeah as I said, a lot of tension today, slightly cramps, but also he was suffering today a little bit in his legs, so I tried to move him around, tried to stay a little bit more aggressive, which today, helped a lot,” he explained.

“These matches can go very, very long. For three sets, two and a half hours is quite a time. So happy to finish today in three.”

Sinner will face world No 2 Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open final on Sunday.

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The 23-year-old, who won his maiden major at the 2024 Australian Open, is the youngest player to reach back-to-back singles finals at the Melbourne Grand Slam since Pete Sampras in 1994 and 1995.

Sinner is the second youngest man in the Open Era to win 20 consecutive hard-court Grand Slam matches after John McEnroe, who reached the milestone in 1981 at the age of 22 days and 197 days.

The Italian is the first man to reach three successive finals at hard-court major tournaments since Novak Djokovic in 2015-2016.

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Sinner has now won 20 matches in a row in a run that began at the Shanghai Masters in October, surpassing his previous best career win streak of 19 matches — which he compiled from late 2023 into early 2024.

The world No 1 has won a set in his last 88 matches, with his last straight-set defeat coming to Djokovic in the final of the 2023 ATP Finals.