Italian world No. 1 and defending champion Jannik Sinner will have a chance for revenge against veteran Serbian Novak Djokovic after both advanced to the semifinals of Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the tennis season.

Sinner defeated Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff, ranked 74th, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 to book his place in the semifinals.

In his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at age 36, Struff put up a strong performance against the 24-year-old Italian in the first two sets, which were largely even.

But Sinner's experience in crucial points allowed him to break his opponent's serve to go up 6-5, before closing out the first set on his own serve.

In the second set, the German had a set point on his serve at 5-4, but Sinner saved it with three winners, before asserting his dominance in the tiebreak, benefiting from the power of his first serve (16 aces vs. 12 for Struff in the match).

The world No. 74 struggled more on serve in the third set (36% first-serve percentage), allowing Sinner to go up 5-3 before securing his fourth victory over the German in four meetings on his serve, finishing the match in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

Sinner said, 'It was a big test today. I felt comfortable physically, and it's a good step forward,' adding, 'We worked a lot after Paris (Roland Garros, where he exited in the second round) to try to understand what went wrong and prepared in the best possible way.'

A revenge match

To reach the final, Sinner will face world No. 8 Djokovic, who at 39 is seeking his record 25th Grand Slam title. Djokovic also advanced with a marathon win over Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime, seeded fourth, 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (10-4).

The match is a rematch of the Australian Open semifinal earlier this year, where the Serb won in five sets after five consecutive losses to Sinner, who leads their head-to-head 6-5 overall.

Djokovic aims to tie the record held by Switzerland's Roger Federer by winning his eighth Wimbledon singles title.

At 39, he would become the oldest player to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era, but he first needs to get past his 15th Wimbledon semifinal—a new record—and his 55th Grand Slam semifinal.

For the first time in his career, Germany's Alexander Zverev, seeded third and Roland Garros champion, reached the quarterfinals by defeating the Czech Republic's Jiri Lehecka, seeded 14th, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), in a match that was suspended on Monday due to exceeding the time limit for matches at the third Grand Slam.

After taking the first two sets 6-4 and 7-5, Zverev leveled at 3-3 in the third set before the chair umpire decided to suspend the match and send the players to the locker rooms.

Under Wimbledon's 'curfew,' matches cannot continue after 11:00 PM local time (10:00 PM GMT), unless only a few points remain.

The Czech came back strong on Tuesday, winning 12 of the first 13 points after the resumption of the third set, which he closed out after eight minutes.

Lehecka continued his serve dominance in the fourth set until the tiebreak, where the German rallied and sealed the match in his favor.

Zverev, who had exited in the fourth round three times (2017, 2021, 2024), will face American Taylor Fritz, seeded seventh, in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Gauff turns the tables on Pegula

In the women's draw, American Coco Gauff, world No. 7 and seeking her third major title, reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time after rallying past her compatriot Jessica Pegula, seeded fourth, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The 22-year-old entered this year's tournament without a win on grass since 2024, but at the All England Club she recorded her fifth straight victory by defeating her compatriot Pegula.

Gauff said, 'Given that I hadn't won any match on grass in two years before this tournament, I'm very happy with the performance I gave today.'

Gauff will play her first Grand Slam semifinal since Roland Garros 2025, where she won the title, on Thursday.

In the next round, she will face Czech Karolina Muchova, seeded ninth, who also reached her first Wimbledon semifinal after ending Japanese Naomi Osaka's longest run at the English tournament, defeating the world No. 14 who had ousted Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed, in the fourth round, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion and 2025 Roland Garros champion, had lost all three of her previous grass-court semifinals since the start of her career: in Berlin in 2022 and 2024, and in Eastbourne in 2023.

Gauff started the match poorly on Tuesday, losing her serve twice in the first set, but she bounced back strongly in the second, breaking Pegula's serve without losing a point to go up 4-3.

After squandering a break advantage early in the decisive third set, she finished things in her favor with another break of Pegula's serve without losing a point, leading 4-3 and then 5-3.

Moments later, Pegula's 24th unforced error of the match handed the young American a ticket to the semifinals.