Tennis great Jim Courier has argued it is “absolute baloney” that Jannik Sinner was allowed to leave the court for treatment during his second round match at the 2026 French Open.
Sinner was leading 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 in his second round match with Juan Manuel Cerundolo when he appeared to start suffering with cramping and dehydration amid soaring temperatures in Paris.
After losing 15 consecutive points, Sinner stopped playing when serving at 5-4, 0-40 in the third set and sat at the side of the court.
After Sinner returned to his feet and walked gingerly on the court, chair umpire Aurelie Tourte approached the Italian.
The world No 1 was then allowed to leave the court for around 10 minutes for a medical timeout.
Sinner continued to struggle after the match resumed, though, and world No 56 Cerundolo took the third set.
The top seed then left the court for another lengthy break, with TNT Sports commentator Nick Mullins saying he had spent 18 minutes off court in total.
French Open News
Joao Fonseca says ‘mentality’ is the ‘difference’ between Novak Djokovic & Jannik Sinner
French Open: Boris Becker admits he was ‘a bit worried’ about ‘friend’ Novak Djokovic
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.
Commentating on TNT Sports and HBO Max, former world No 1 Courier was scathing as he discussed how the situation was handled.
“Chair umpire has not activated the serve clock, which is wrong. That should be counting down,” said the American.
“She’s gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and think this might be an injury. This is unquestionably not an injury.
“This is unbelievably lucky for him. This is unfair for Cerundolo. The clock should be counting, he should be getting penalised for this. This is not an injury, he’s reacting to different areas of his body. It’s clearly cramping.”
After Mary Joe Fernandez said the umpire was “trying to help” Sinner, Courier replied: “That’s not fair. That’s not right.
“We love the top players, they drive the sport, but you gotta apply the rules fairly. The rules are being bent for the top players.
“You cannot tell me you’ve gotta take him off court to try to see what his vital signs are like. This is absolute baloney.”
Former world No 4 Tim Henman shared his thoughts on TNT Sports.
“He is delaying play, and therefore, you’re going to get a warning, and if you’ve already had a warning for that, it can be loss of first serve, or it’s going to be a penalty point,” said Henman.
“So the umpire shouldn’t be getting off her chair. It’s not her responsibility, that’s the player’s responsibility. I don’t see why he should get the benefit of going into an air conditioned room.”
READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic candidly reveals the ‘biggest misunderstanding’ about him: ‘That hurt me’
The post Jannik Sinner accused of ‘delaying play’ during dramatic French Open physical collapse appeared first on Tennis365.
Leave a Reply