Jannik Sinner has admitted the physical issues that have hampered his season may rear their ugly head again.
The Italian returned to the semi-finals of Wimbledon after a straight-set win over Jan-Lennard Struff on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old battled through temperatures around 30C but didn’t look in any discomfort physically against the big-hitting German.
After winning all five of this year’s Masters 1000 titles, Sinner was the overwhelming favourite to win his first Roland Garros crown.
But when he was a game away from beating Juan Manuel Cerundolo in round two at the French Open, the heat got to him and Sinner eventually lost in five sets.
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The four-time major winner, who was also saved by a cooling break at the Australian Open after suffering a physical collapse against Eliot Spizzirri, later had medical tests to determine why this kept happening to him.
Before Wimbledon, the defending champion said he and his team “came to a conclusion which is very good” on this matter.
And after his win over Struff, Sinner was once again asked about his physical conditioning in these hot temperatures.
In his own court interview on Tuesday, he said, “Yeah, thanks for reminding me!
“We worked a lot, especially after Paris, trying to understand what went wrong there. We prepared ourselves in the best possible way and in any case it was a huge test today.
“I felt really, really comfortable on the physical side today so a good step forward. Even if it would happen again, like in Paris, I hope not but if it happens again, we need to change a couple of things again.”
Those remarks suggest that this could be an ongoing issue for Sinner, who will face either Novak Djokovic – who beat him in five sets at the Australian Open earlier this year – or Felix Auger-Aliassime.
And to the rest of the ATP Tour, this development may be music to their ears. Ergo, if you keep Sinner on court for as long as possible on a hot day, his body may fail him again.
But even taking sets off Sinner can prove to be a tall order.
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The post Jannik Sinner admits French Open physical struggles may not be fully solved despite Wimbledon progress appeared first on Tennis365.
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