Jannik Sinner, number one in the world rankings and the favorite for the title this year, has been eliminated in the second round of Roland Garros. It is perhaps the biggest surprise at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris since fourteen-time winner Rafael Nadal lost to Robin Söderling in the fourth round in 2009. Until then, the Spaniard had been undefeated on the French clay since his debut in Paris in 2005.
When Sinner takes on the Argentinian Juan Manuel Cerúndolo on Court Philippe-Chatrier around noon, he looks fit. There doesn’t seem to be a problem in the first two and a half sets. The Italian leads 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 and can serve out the match.
But then things go wrong. Sinner suddenly loses fifteen points in a row and is clearly bothered by something. At 5-4, 0-40, with three break points against, it really doesn’t work anymore. He sits down next to his towel on the boarding and asks for a break. “I don’t know if it’s due to dehydration,” you can hear him say to the umpire. After a brief discussion, he disappears from the court, which is unusual in the middle of a game.
After a few minutes he comes back, but it is immediately clear that he is definitely not fit. There is less power in his serve and in his strokes, and he moves quite slowly around the court for his actions. He is immediately broken and then again, losing the set.
After that it only gets worse. Between the points, Sinner regularly bends over on the track. He misses easy balls and can hardly hit winners anymore. At first he tries to force something by ramming the ball over the net with his last bit of strength, but it doesn’t yield enough. It doesn’t help that the audience fully supports him at every point he does manage to win. The fourth and fifth sets both go 6-1 to Cerúndolo, number 56 in the world rankings.
It is unusually hot in Paris this first week of the tournament. Every day the temperature exceeds thirty degrees, there is not a cloud in the sky. Many players suffer from the heat. The Norwegian Casper Ruud led by two sets in his first round match against Roman Safioellin, only to lose twelve games in a row. “I walked around like a zombie,” he said afterwards, after he had won the match in five sets. “It felt like a sunstroke.” And the Czech Jakub Mensik fell to the ground after a marathon match, with so much cramp that he could barely move his legs. “My body just turned itself off,” he said in his press conference.
‘Not nice’
In a conference room packed with journalists, Sinner said it wasn’t the heat that did him in. “I didn’t feel well when I woke up,” he said. “I just had no energy left. I can’t remember the last time I felt so weak.” It was warm, he acknowledged. “But it’s not like I died from the heat.”
Yet Sinner is known to have difficulty with heat. Earlier this year he was close to elimination in the third round of the Australian Open by compatriot Eliot Spizzirri. It was extremely hot, Sinner suffered from cramps and had difficulty walking. He was saved by the heat rules of the Grand Slam tournament: the roof was closed, Sinner was able to recover for ten minutes. In Shanghai last year, he suffered so much from cramps in a match against Tallon Greek Spoor that he had to give up.
Prior to Roland Garros, when the weather forecasts became known, there was already speculated that the heat could cause a surprise. That would be the only opponent that Sinner could stop – defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will not participate due to a wrist injury.
Now that Sinner has been eliminated, the question is who will win Roland Garros. Novak Djokovic, who unexpectedly reached the final in Australia by beating Sinner? Or world number three Alexander Zverev, after losing three Grand Slam finals? Casper Ruud, who has already reached the final twice in Paris and is in good shape? Or an even bigger outsider? Players will feel that their chances have suddenly increased, but the pressure also increases. It remains to be seen who can best deal with this.
