WATCH: Jim Courier puts 'boring' Jannik Sinner on the spot in Australian Open interview ahead of Ben Shelton SF

Jannik Sinner found himself in a tight spot during his post-match interview with Jim Courier following his 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 win over Alex de Minaur at the Australian Open quarterfinals on Wednesday (January 22). The former player has been doing this for a very long time and is widely considered one of the best when it comes to interviewing, and he put Sinner a bit on the spot during their chat.

Jannik Sinner often describes himself as not that entertaining of a person and he reiterated that this time as well, but Courier wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. He pressed him to preview the semi-finals, including his own against Ben Shelton.

"I'm not good at predicting. Yeah, tough matchup. What else can I say? It's an interesting matchup. They played so many times already. I feel like a journalist when you ask me like this. It's very difficult," Sinner responded when asked to preview the semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.

After he failed at previewing the Djokovic vs Zverev semi-final satisfactorily, Sinner was asked to preview his own semi-final against Ben Shelton. He did a bit better this time though he did slide in a self-deprecating joke, calling himself "boring".

"You know me with talking, I'm not the best entertainer so that's a bit boring when I respond. No with him, we played some tough matches last year, obviously, he's one of the best servers. Lefty, different rotation. Hopefully, I'm ready. Hopefully, I can return as many serves as possible and then try to stay concentrated on my game as today. Stay aggressive and then we'll see," the Italian said.

Watch the interaction unfold here:

Jannik Sinner vs Ben Shelton: What to expect?

2025 Australian Open - Day 11 - Source: Getty

Jannik Sinner is the overwhelming favorite to win the match against Shelton because he's the defending champion and has played really well at the Australian Open for the second year in a row. His quarterfinal victory against de Minaur on Wednesday marked his 12th consecutive win at the Melbourne Major.

While Shelton has beaten Sinner once (Shanghai, 2023), they have played four times since then and each of those has been a straight-sets win for the Italian. Jannik Sinner now leads Shelton 4-1 in their head-to-head record.

It's likely to go in favor of the World No. 1 again because he's just the overall more skilled player. Shelton's serve will carry him for a while, but eventually, the Italian's baseline consistency will help him find a solution. The young American will have to win the matchup from the baseline if he wants to have his chances, which doesn't seem likely to happen, especially with the way their previous few matches ended.