Whatever way Jannik Sinner tries to spin it, the heat got him in the end. No matter how poorly he felt when he woke up, how much fatigue may be gripping his body from the ceaseless run of tournaments he’s won over the last few weeks, or how many ‘baloney’ trips to air-conditioned locker rooms he was strangely allowed by the officials, his most troublesome opponent toppled him once again.

The Italian was four points away from a place in the third round when he started to get dizzy and said he felt the energy drain from his body. He cramped up again. He felt he was going to throw up. He tried to vomit but couldn’t. 

He was allowed to leave court - we’ll get to that - came back on, won just two more games as he lost the last three sets to Juan Manuel Cerundolo, the world No 56. 

'I woke up this morning, didn't feel very well,’ he said. ‘I just kind of hit the wall,' said Sinner. ‘That’s it. It was not like I was dying in the heat. I feel like it was okay to play, it was nothing against the weather, it was just me today. I couldn’t find any energy.’

But, no, it wasn’t the heat. For the man who sat in his chair on Court Philippe-Chatrier with an ice pack around his neck and a hand fan blowing in his face, it definitely wasn’t the heat. 

‘If we were trying to get away from the sun, we would have asked for the night match or first match on Suzanne Lenglen,’ insisted Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill.

Put it this way, at 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 up, had Sinner not been playing in the middle of an unprecedented Paris heatwave and instead knocking it about in 20 degrees instead of 32, you feel a man coming to Roland Garros on the back of 30 straight wins and five tournament triumphs in a row may well have got over the line.

Instead, after losing 15 straight points in the third to go 40-0 down on serve at 5-4, he hit the wall.

As Daily Mail Sport discussed yesterday, when things get hot, Sinner often melts. He’s never won a Grand Slam match over four hours. He lasted 3 hours 36minutes here. At the Australian Open in January, he was 3-1 down in the third set to before being saved by the heat rule, which suspended play, and he got the time he needed to cool down and regain control. 

It looked like Sinner might be getting the same stroke of luck once again. Sinner clutched at his cramping leg but instead of starting the serve clock, umpire Aurelie Tourte raced down from her chair to check on Sinner, who complained of dehydration, and was then allowed to leave court, head off to the air-conditioned locker room, to be assessed by the medical staff.

While off the court, Tourte informed Cerundolo that Sinner was having his blood pressure taken. 

‘This is unfair for Cerundolo,’ said four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier on the Tennis Channel. ‘This is not an injury. He should be getting penalised for this. It’s clearly cramping.

‘The rules are being bent for the top players. You cannot tell me you have to take him off court to see what his vital signs are like. This is absolute baloney.’

Players are not allowed to leave court for cramp. Had Tourte started the countdown clock and Sinner failed to serve in time, he would have been given a time violation.

That’s what happened to Czech star 26th seed Jakub Mensik on Wednesday night. He suffered with such severe cramp during an epic final-set tie-break that he collapsed to the clay for more than five minutes after hitting the winning shot and needed to be helped into a wheelchair. That didn’t stop officials from slapping him with two time violations in the tie-break that twice cost him his serve.

All players push the rules. They all say they’ve tweaked a thigh when, really, they have just got a bit of cramp but it’s the top players who constantly get away with more.

‘ If you are being evaluated for an injury where you need a bit of privacy, if you've got a groin strain, you've got to remove articles of clothing, then you obviously go off the court, but in that scenario, when he's been evaluated, I think to get 10 minutes in an air conditioned room,’ said Tim Henman speaking on TNT Sport’s coverage of Roland Garros. ‘Um, doesn't seem quite right.’

Sinner left the court again just three games later, after losing the third set, for a ‘kit change’. Some more time under the air con. That one was within the rules but still didn’t make a difference. He ended up throwing the fourth set, barely even trying to win points or serve with any gusto, to try to save up some energy for the decider. That didn’t work either. He lost the final two sets to one.

Now, the path for Novak Djokovic to stride towards a 25th Grand Slam title just opened up. This will be the first Slam without either Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz in the final since the US Open in 2023. Djokovic won that one too.

Sinner’s escape in Melbourne was the second Australian Open in a row in which the conditions nearly toppled him. He almost withered against Casper Ruud but took advantage of an 11-minute off-court medical timeout and went on to win the tournament. He retired at the Shanghai Masters last year due to severe cramps in the extreme heat and humidity. He wobbled against Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals in Rome a few weeks ago but came through and won that tournament too.

‘I think today was a completely different scenario,’ said Sinner, who said he will now take time off until Wimbledon. In one sense, he was right. The rules didn’t come to his rescue this time, however much they tried to bend.