Jannik comes one step away from victory against Cerundolo: but at 6-3, 6-2, 5-2 he feels bad. He decides to continue and loses in the fifth set. “I had been feeling sick since the morning, I had no energy. But the problem wasn’t the heat. See you at Wimbledon”
The path of Jannik Sinner at Roland Garros is already over in the second round of the Parisian tournament. A sensational collapse but perhaps not completely unexpected given the weather conditions in which the game was played. Sinner took to the court against Cerundolo a few minutes after midday and after having dominated the first two sets without problems he was about to close the match. Number one in the world he had moved up to 5-1 (after winning the first two sets 6-3 6-2) and there wasn’t a single reason from a technical point of view that suggested a possible turnaround: Jannik was the absolute dominator of the match, Cerundolo was destined to return to the locker room in a few minutes. Instead everything changed: Sinner went to serve for the match at 5-2 and started to feel ill, he lost his serve to zero, but he didn’t stop and didn’t ask for medical intervention. Even at 5-4 at the change of court he doesn’t ask for help, Jannik double faults, then misses the time on the forehand: it’s 0-30. Then a long rally yields: 0-40. He stops on the sideline, tries to stretch, consults with the referee. Finally he calls the physiotherapist. Jannik talks to the doctor, to whom he says: “I need to vomit”. And they leave the field.
Useless agony
Sinner returns to the court, but from then on the match becomes agony for Jannik who loses the third set 7-5. He has no energy, no strength, he can’t run. At any moment we expect him to retire but instead he carries on and probably even from his staff he doesn’t get any indication to do enough. But what sense does it make to see a 24 year old boy suffer in that world under a 35 degree sun in obvious dehydration and with no possibility of facing an opponent who otherwise behaved with great sportsmanship?. Cerundolo understood that he was winning an unexpected match only because Sinner was ill. At the end he seemed almost apologetic while Sinner was shocked by fatigue. There was also a moment of tension between Sinner and coach Vagnozzi: during a shift of service, Vagnozzi stood up to give directions to the Italian, who however reacted badly: “Can you leave me alone for a moment? Just a moment”, he shouted at his coach, who for his part went back to sit down, leaving Sinner to his thoughts. Very bad thoughts.
The processes
Now the trials and the usual amenities on social media will begin due to the fact that Sinner played too many matches in 2026, but the real problem is instead the absurdity of wanting to ruin a beautiful sport like tennis by having matches played in impossible conditions. At Roland Garros it is not only almost impossible to play tennis but it also becomes a challenge for the spectators to resist. Is it possible that a solution cannot be found in the face of a movement that moves hundreds of millions of euros? Why can’t you close the roof unless it rains, why aren’t match times moved when the temperature is lower? These are very simple questions that none of the tournament organizers will want to answer. And players who pay the consequences instead of the rewards should protest that their health is being put at risk.
“I’ve been feeling sick since morning”
Sinner explained that he had been ill since the morning and then told what happened on the Center Court at Roland Garros: “I started to feel very dizzy, with very little energy, and I tried to close the match but I had no strength. I let it go a bit in the fourth set to try to have more energy in the fifth, but I wasn’t able to hold on to the first game and from there it went downhill for my opponent, who I still congratulate. This morning I woke up feeling unwell, I tried to keep the rallies short and at the beginning I hit very well, then at a certain point I hit a wall and that was it.” There’s no point in looking back and rethinking whether it was worth playing in Madrid: “I didn’t find the energy. Even if I had skipped Madrid or Rome it could have happened. Here I played the first match very well, but when you return to the field the next day you still don’t have much time to recover, even if I finished late but not too late. Last night I didn’t sleep well and this morning when I woke up I was struggling, but it can happen: during the year there are always a couple of days when you don’t feel perfect, today was one of them. I was flat with my whole body, I can’t remember the last time I felt this weak. I tried to hang in there with everything I had, but this was the best today. It’s a shame, because I was playing the first two sets and also the third very well, but this is sport. It was hot but not too much, it wasn’t a problem of heat or conditions: today the problem was just me. It’s just that this time I didn’t see a way out, which doesn’t usually happen to me, but I couldn’t give more, honestly.” As for the plans for the next few weeks: “I’ll do some checks, I rest and then start preparing for Wimbledon. At the moment the plan remains not to play tournaments before London, and I honestly think it would be good for me to stop for a while.”
