In the first round of Wimbledon, the Serbian Kezmanovic puts the Italian in difficulty by leading by two sets to one, then Jannik changes gear and wins
A year ago the debut match on Central Wimbledon between Carlos Alcaraz and Fabio Fognini gave a great show and five very long and intense sets until the victory of the reigning Spanish champion. He made the same effort to get past the first round Jannik Sinner against the Serbian Kezmanovic. The final score (4-6 6-3 6-7(6) 6-2 6-3), dispels the taboo of the fifth set in London after the defeats with Djokovic in the quarterfinals of 2022 and with Medvedev again in the quarterfinals of 2024. It was a match that started uphill and ended with the tennis that Sinner knows how to play, when he raises the bar and the quality of the game is the one we know it blows everyone away. Despite the 51 gratuitous errors and only 4 opportunities exploited out of 9 for the breaks in the end Sinner returned to what we know and did it as usual in the most difficult moment after overcoming the shock of the third set lost after Kezmanovic canceled out a set point with an incredible exchange. Sinner somatized the negative moment and gave a rhythm to the match that had become impossible for Kezmanovic. The blue’s growth coincided with the newfound service, in the end the 31 aces say a lot about the match.
The emotions
At the end Sinner talked about the emotions of playing the opening match at Wimbledon. “It’s not a game like the othersbefore I was very nervous and it took me a long time to loosen up as you can see. Then Kezmanovic played a great match but I didn’t play my best. But it was the first match I played on grass and so it was normal for me to take a while to get into the rhythm.” Then they asked him what had happened to his right foot since there was a red stain on his sock, clearly blood. “Nothing important – Jannik downplayed it, he just broke a nail and I didn’t want to interrupt the game because it wasn’t anything serious. Rather, it seemed strange to me that they didn’t interrupt me given that the clothing here must be all white.” Now Sinner will have a day to rest after the three and a half hours of play with Kezmanovic and on Wednesday he will face Nuno Borges.
