Top-seeded Jannik Sinner was one game away from advancing to the third round of the French Open on Thursday before it all fell apart.
Clearly struggling with the heat that reached 90 degrees, Sinner squandered two chances to serve for the match before Argentina’s 56th-ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo ended the Italian’s 30-match win streak with a 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 victory on the clay courts at Roland Garros in Paris.
Sinner, 24, was seeking his first French Open title, which would have given him the career Grand Slam.
The win seemed inevitable when Sinner jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set. But he lost seven of the next eight games. Up 5-1 in the set, Sinner lost 18 consecutive points.
With his clothes soaked through with sweat, Sinner bent over on the court and walked to his chair while serving for the match at 5-4 (0-40) in the third set. He left the court and returned with an ice pack and used a handheld fan during changeovers.
Sinner’s play went cold, however, losing the game and mustering just two more wins during the rest of the match while resorting to drop shots and serve-and-volleying in an attempt to shorten points.
“It’s tough for him,” Cerundolo said of Sinner. “I couldn’t win more than three games in a set, so I was a little bit lucky. He deserved to win this match, and then I don’t know what happened. But I feel sorry for him and hope he recovers.”
The temperature at the start of the match was 84 degrees Fahrenheit. It rose to 90 as the match progressed.
Cerundolo, 24, advanced into the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. He will next face either Spaniard Martin Landaluce or Czech player Vit Kopriva.
With Sinner eliminated, Novak Djokovic is the lone remaining player in the men’s draw who has won a Grand Slam title. He is seeking his first since the 2023 U.S. Open. And for the first time since then, a Grand Slam will be won by someone other than Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion who is missing this year’s French Open due to a wrist injury.
–Field Level Media
