Tennis icon Boris Becker believes that Jannik Sinner’s shock exit from the French Open was as much ‘mental’ as it was ‘physical’, as the Italian was dumped out in the second round by Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Sinner, 24, was seemingly coasting on a sweltering day in the Paris sunshine, having raced into a comfortable two-set lead, before serving for the match in the third.
However, the World No.1 suddenly imploded when four points away from a place in the third round, seemingly due to the intense heat, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius in the French capital.
After being allowed a short break from the match, Sinner went on to lose 18 of the next 20 games and, in turn, the match in five sets.
The four-time major winner, who had been on a 30-match unbeaten streak, later admitted that it was not the heat that caused his sudden collapse, but rather because he ‘hit the wall’ due to illness.
But Becker doesn’t believe it was Sinner’s sickness that couldn’t get him over the line at Roland Garros, but rather the demons in his head.
Boris Becker thinks Jannik Sinner’s implosion at the French Open was a mental problem
Becker said: ‘For me, this can’t be physical, it has to be mental. We don’t know what’s going on inside him. How much pressure is he putting on himself? He said he slept badly. When you’re overthinking and nervous, it’s hard to get any sleep.’
Sinner had been the clear favourite to avenge his dramatic French Open final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz last year, which was an all-time classic, with the Spaniard pulling out of the tournament due to a wrist injury.
‘This is the biggest sensation at Grand Slam tournaments in recent years,’ added Becker. ‘Jannik Sinner was considered unbeatable — he won Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome in impressive fashion. Then today he served for the match twice and still couldn’t close it out. That’s his big pFroblem.
‘Especially when matches at the majors go the full distance or things get intense, he often runs into physical — and perhaps even mental — difficulties.
‘Earlier this week, I was asked who Sinner’s biggest opponent in Paris would be. My answer was: the weather! We saw that again today.’
While the weather appeared to sap the energy from Sinner as the match went on, Becker also put down the Italian’s fatigue to the number of matches he had already played this year.
‘You just have to do the maths: Jannik has been constantly on the road since the beginning of March. He played in California, Florida, Monte Carlo, Madrid, and Rome — and kept winning. But at some point, this guy is simply drained.
‘He’s human and just had a bad day today. I don’t know if it was the heat. He plays for two hours and suddenly starts showing signs of cramping. I can hardly believe it, and in my opinion it all came from his head. I liked that he didn’t make excuses and simply said: “It was on me”.
Sinner seemed to be struggling with the Paris heat before throwing a two-set lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round
‘He was just empty. This was the one match too many. That can happen to anyone. In recent weeks, he had been playing as if he were from another planet, always switched on, always having to answer everyone’s questions — and then today’s match was simply one too many.’
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 3hours 36minutes here.
At the Australian Open in January, he was 3-1 down in the third set before being saved by the heat rule, which suspended play, and he got the time he needed to cool down and regain control.
‘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.
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.
