Jannik Sinner described his second-round loss at the French Open and the physical difficulties that scuppered him as “tough to accept” considering his form. On Thursday, the world No 1’s body betrayed him as he suffered a monumental 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 defeat by Juan Manuel Cerúndolo of Argentina.
“It’s tough to accept because of the position where I’ve been in and everything considered, but now I have a lot of time to recover,” he said. “I won’t play any tournament on grass before, most likely. Now I really need some time off, recover completely, also mentally, and then be ready to go again for Wimbledon.”
This is one of the most shocking results in recent years. With last year’s champion, Carlos Alcaraz, out indefinitely due to a wrist injury, Sinner was expected to win his first French Open title and become the second man to have won every significant annual title: four grand slams and nine Masters 1000, the ATP Finals and Davis Cup. The first was Novak Djokovic.
Sinner entered Court Philippe-Chatrier on a 30-match winning streak. Despite having never won in Paris, according to some bookmakers he was an even heavier favourite coming into the tournament than anyone other than Rafael Nadal in 2009, when Nadal also failed to win. No player in the world has come close to consistently challenging Sinner’s level over the past three months.
It initially seemed like the Italian was cruising to victory as he rolled through the first two sets before establishing a 5-1 third set lead on the world No 56. Four points away from an uneventful win, Sinner began to shake out his legs and stumble between points. It did not take long until he could barely move on the court.
Quick GuideBritain's Boulter falls to second-round defeat by Potapova
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British interest in singles at the French Open ended in the second round with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 defeat for Katie Boulter against Anastasia Potapova.
Boulter may have feared the worst when her match was moved from its original court six to court 13, where Emma Raducanu, Cameron Norrie and Fran Jones had already lost.
The British No 3 put up a good fight against 28th seed Potapova, one of the most in-form players on the WTA Tour, and won the first set.
But the Russian-turned-Austrian hit back strongly to claim a victory and set up a third-round meeting with the defending champion Coco Gauff.
Boulter was in familiar territory taking on the hard, flat hitting of Potapova, with the two women trading hefty groundstrokes from the off.
Both struggled to hold serve in an opening set that featured six successive breaks but it was Boulter who edged it, only to fall 5-1 behind in the second set.
She saved three set points before winning three games in a row but Potapova, who has soared from 97 in the rankings to 30 in the last two months, finally held to force a decider, where she was much the steadier player.
From 5-1, he lost 18 points in a row and five consecutive games as the match dramatically shifted. That sequence included Sinner receiving a medical evaluation at 5-4 in the third set, but trailing 0-40. He also asked the umpire, Aurélie Tourte, if he could leave the court in order to vomit. Nothing helped. He spent the last 90 minutes of the match completely uncompetitive.
Sinner denied heat had been a factor and said he had been feeling dizzy and low on energy after feeling sick in the morning. “Woke up, didn’t feel very well and tried to keep the points very short,” he said. “Also, in the beginning I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I kind of hit the wall.”
His demise swings the men’s draw wide open. Alexander Zverev, the second seed, is the new favourite as he chases his first grand slam title. However, this is also the type of opportunity Djokovic has been searching for as he continues his pursuit of an open era record‑extending 25th grand slam title at 39 years old.
Since the start of last year, the Serb has not lost a completed grand slam match to anyone other than Sinner and Alcaraz, but he has struggled to remain fit at his advanced age. He is the only former grand slam champion left , meaning there will either be another major title for the Serb or a new champion.
For Sinner, after such a monumental effort over the past few months, his failure to consolidate those results at the biggest clay tournament of all is devastating. His team will have to consider whether they made a mistake by not withdrawing from one of the clay Masters 1000 events to ensure he was fresh.
The defeat still raw, Sinner said he would try to bounce back as soon as possible: “Many things together caused this problem, but, again, it can happen. I just need my time now to process what went wrong here and also that we can put in good practice weeks before Wimbledon. Also, after Wimbledon, we have important tournaments coming up.”
Elsewhere, the 17-year-old French sensation Moïse Kouamé continued his breakthrough as he recovered from a break down in the final set to close out the first five-set match of his career with a 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8) win over Adolfo Daniel Vallejo after four hours, 56 minutes. Kouamé is the youngest man to reach the third round of a grand slam since Nadal at Wimbledon in 2003.
Naomi Osaka, meanwhile, reached the third round for the first time since 2018, defeating Donna Vekic 7-6 (1), 6-4 while Coco Gauff advanced after swatting aside Mayar Sherif 6-3, 6-2.
The world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, beat the local favourite Elsa Jacquemot 7-5, 6-2 to set up a third-round match with Australia’s Daria Kasatkina, a former semi-finalist.