(Provided by Tennis World USA)
An unexpected tribute. Jannik Sinner ended the important part of the clay court season with the heaviest defeat of the entire year. The Italian was in fact eliminated from the Roland Garros in the second round by the German Daniel Altmaier, displacing practically all tennis fans and enthusiasts, but also some players on the circuit.
Regarding this knockout, to which the Italian will have to try to react immediately on the grass, the New York Times wanted to dedicate some interesting considerations about him, who let himself go before the definitive end of the match to an unusual moment of nervousness throwing the racket on the ground.
“Sinner should have won without too much trouble. He moved on early, but he struggled. He spent an hour. Altmaier has joined him. Another hour passed. The match became a stalemate. Three hours became four. Sinner had two match points and wasted both.
They went to the fifth set. Sinner fell behind and came back: he faced four match points, but won them all. And then…and then, after 5 hours and 26 minutes, Sinner saw a serve fly past his outstretched racket for an ace. game.
Set. Match. Final score: 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5. The clash was the fifth longest match in French Open history. Sinner left the court in disorder and argued, his face betrayed the insecurity common to losers. In other words, he was wonderfully human.”
In a few days the debut on grass-courts
There have been many criticisms received on social media by the Italian after the bad setback.
The talented 21-year-old is already focused on the next appointment, the first on grass, at the ATP 250 in s’Hertogenbosch. He will thus begin preparation on this complicated surface (so far just 4 successes in his career, all at Wimbledon 2022 where he surprisingly reached the quarterfinals) for the third Grand Slam of the season.
We recall Sinner is one of the most awaited players at Wimbledon, where last seaosn he eliminated the world no.1 Carlos Alcaraz.
