Defending champion Jannik Sinner shattered home hopes by crushing Alex de Minaur in a straight-sets rout to tee up an Australian Open semifinal against Ben Shelton.

The Italian world number one showed no signs of the illness that hampered him in his last match to emphatically fly past the eighth seed 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.

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“Today I felt like I was feeling everything,” said Sinner.

“Days like this and you break quite early in each set, it’s a little bit easier.”

He will meet stubborn American Shelton for a place in Sunday’s final against either 10-time champion Novak Djokovic or second seed Alexander Zverev.

Shelton, seeded 21, battled past another Italian, the unseeded Lorenzo Sonego, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4) to make the Melbourne Park last four for the first time.

The writing was on the wall for De Minaur with Sinner winning all nine of their previous meetings – the Italian had also won all 20 of his last matches against Australians.

De Minaur was given a glimmer of hope after Sinner battled illness in his last-16 clash, where he admitted he was “not there health-wise” and had been “a bit dizzy at times” in hot weather.

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But the Italian showed no evidence of the issues on a much cooler quarterfinal day, moving freely and displaying no discomfort.

“Yesterday was a very easy day. I played just half an hour, 40 minutes with my coaches,” Sinner said when asked about how he was feeling.

“Talking about general physical (condition), you know, I feel like, especially when you are young, you recover very fast.”

In front of a patriotic home crowd, he broke for a 3-1 lead after a draining 24-shot baseline rally.

The agile Sinner’s big ball-striking proved hard for the Australian to counter and he struggled to create chances, managing just four winners in the opening set.

The second set followed a similar pattern with Sinner bossing De Minaur, pushing him around at will and breaking immediately to take control.

He was on a mission and a forehand winner earned him a second break on his way to the second set in 40 minutes, with the Australian shaking his head, wondering what to do.

De Minaur tried everything but had no answers, broken twice in set three after a series of errors as Sinner powered 3-0 clear.

Sinner is bidding to defend a Grand Slam title for the first time after beating Daniil Medvedev in the final last year and is also seeking to become the first Italian man to win three Grand Slam crowns.

He also won the US Open last year.