Sinner’s French Open exit reveals sudden physical limits
A 30-match streak collapsed under fatigue as the top seed lost control of rallies and movement against an opportunistic Argentine on a warming clay court.
Formidable title favorite Jannik Sinner is out of the French Open in the second round, wasting a chance to serve for the match in the third set before falling to a 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 loss to 56th-ranked opponent Juan Manuel Cerundolo on Thursday.
The Italian carried a 30-match winning streak into the clay event and looked poised to claim the one major still missing from his resume. Instead the afternoon turned into a study in how accumulated strain can override even the sharpest patterns.
“Woke up this morning, didn’t feel very well and tried to keep the points very short,” Sinner said. “Also in the beginning I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just kind of hit the wall, and that’s it.”
Streak meets sudden physical dip
After leading 5-1 in the third set and potentially a minute away from the locker room, Sinner sensationally lost 18 points in a row to trail 0-40 serving for the match a second time at 5-4. He bent over on the court and walked to his chair. Medical staff checked his condition before he returned to drop three more games and the set.
The surface offered little grip once movement slowed, turning attempted inside-out drives into short balls that sat up for Juan Manuel Cerundolo to punish down the line. Temperature climbed from 84 to 90 degrees yet the player insisted the conditions were manageable. He cooled himself with a fan and ice packs but the legs no longer covered the court. Drop shots and serve-and-volley attempts replaced the usual heavy topspin crosscourt rallies.
“I don’t remember last time I felt this weak,” he added later. Carlos Alcaraz out with an injured right wrist had removed one rival yet the absence only heightened expectations on the remaining top seed. Sinner had already battled similar heat issues against Eliot Spizzirri at the Australian Open when the roof closed and the match swung his way.
Season pressure surfaces in Paris
The psychological weight of defending a ranking built on weekly consistency began to show once the third set slipped away. Casper Ruud saying he felt like a “zombie” during his first-round match, while Czech player Jakub Mensik collapsed at the end of a five-set battle Wednesday, underscored how the fortnight tested everyone. Sinner’s loss leaves Novak Djokovic as the only men’s player left at the French Open to have claimed a Grand Slam title.
It also means for the first time since Djokovic’s US Open win in 2023 a major crown will be claimed by someone other than Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. In other matches 17-year-old Frenchman Moise Kouame became the youngest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal was also 17 at 2003 Wimbledon. Kouame beat Adolfo Daniel Vallejo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (8).
Felix Auger-Aliassime at No. 4 the highest-seeded player left in the top half of the draw after Sinner’s exit beat Roman Andres Burruchaga 4-6, 6-0, 7-5, 6-1. Fifth-seeded Ben Shelton was upset by 62nd-ranked Belgian opponent Raphael Collignon 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 and Frances Tiafoe required nearly five hours to overcome Hubert Hurkacz 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-4. Also Cerundolo’s older brother Francisco beat Hugo Gaston 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
“I feel sorry for him because he deserved to win a lot of matches and of course he was deserving to win this match but then I don’t know what happened,” Juan Manuel Cerundolo said in his on-court interview. The Argentine had entered at 32-1 odds and watched the live number stretch to 100-1 before closing the match. Sinner had been a -50000 favorite to win and a -300 favorite for the title before the tournament the shortest pretournament odds at a Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal at the 2009 French Open.
Recovery window before grass swing
Asked if he considered retiring Sinner noted that in the fifth set everything can happen. He chose to continue rather than default the match. The immediate schedule now points toward Wimbledon on June 29 with no planned lead-in events on grass. The focus shifts to recuperation after a campaign that has demanded near-constant high performance since the previous summer.
The 18 of the last 20 games lost tell only part of the story. The real shift came when the one-two pattern that had carried him through 30 victories lost its timing. Serve-and-volley became a survival tool rather than a weapon. The clay slowed everything just enough for an opponent to stay in rallies that normally would have ended on the third or fourth ball. Recovery now takes precedence over any quick return to competition.