The fall out from Jannik Sinner\u2019s shock second-round exit at the French Open continues to rock tennis and former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has served up his own theory on why the world No 1 is struggling to deal with hot conditions.<\/p>\n
Sinner was on the brink of beating Juan Manuel Cerundolo at Roland Garros until he was struck down by what appeared to be a heat-related slump that ended with a 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 defeat.<\/p>\n
He was the outstanding favourite to win the Roland Garros title after a dominant run of success in the events leading into the second Grand Slam of 2026.<\/p>\n
Yet the four-time Grand Slam winner will have to wait to complete his collection of major titles after he was sent tumbling out in circumstances that left so many questions.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a> retired due to a cramping issue at last year\u2019s Shanghai Masters and he then struggled with a similar issue in his semi-final against Daniil Medvedev at the Rome Masters last month.<\/p>\n \u2018That\u2019s freakish\u2019 \u2013 Former British No 1 makes Novak Djokovic prediction as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner chase history<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Toni Nadal says the first thing he would do with Jannik Sinner if he became his coach<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Now, 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski has floated the idea that Sinner may still be suffering from a virus that left him lacking energy in his semi-final defeat against Novak Djokovic in Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically heat exhaustion, or maybe he had something with the virus he had in Australia,\u201d said Rusedski on the latest episode of his podcast that will be released on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s saying, Sinner\u2019s got a weakness and it\u2019s mental. That\u2019s nonsense. He\u2019s not going to choke when he\u2019s two sets to love up and 5-1 against a guy who is beating him easily.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard he has a virus in Australia that was holding him back and these viruses can linger. When you are winning matches as easily as he has been, you can cruise through matches, but the heat got him in Paris. That\u2019s the only explanation that makes sense to me.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes viruses take a long time to get out of your system. Look at Emma Raducanu over the last few months.<\/p>\n \u201cJannik also said he felt sick on the morning of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the only people who actually know what the truth of the matter is Jannik Sinner and his team. And he\u2019s got a fantastic team. They will be looking at everything. The agent will be looking at everything. They will find a solution to this problem.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they also don\u2019t want to tell us what the problem is exactly, which is also good coaching because it makes us talk, what is it? What\u2019s happening here? What\u2019s happening there? Because you don\u2019t want to give any advantage to your opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n Rusedski went on to draw comparisons between Sinner and Novak Djokovic, who struggled physically in the formative stages of his career before a change of diet changed the game for the 24-time Grand Slam legend.<\/p>\n \u201cDjokovic had that reputation where everybody said he would give up. He wouldn\u2019t fight through and then he became gluten-free,\u201d added Rusedski.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, he found the solution, went from strength to strength, gone on to win 24 majors. I like to look at the numbers. Right now, at 24 years of age, [Roger] Federer had won four Slams. Rafael Nadal was on six. And Djokovic was on four.<\/p>\n \u201cSo Sinner\u2019s right there at four right now, and Alcaraz is on seven, which is one ahead with the injury. So that comparison is very intriguing, and it shows that Sinner and Alcaraz are right there with the greats.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who suggests this defeat will knock Sinner long-term, forget it. He is coming back stronger and better.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: How Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic have affected Roland Garros even after their exits<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner \u2018virus\u2019 theory floated by former British No 1 after shock French Open exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fall out from Jannik Sinner\u2019s shock second-round exit at the French Open continues to rock tennis and former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has served up his own theory on why the world No 1 is struggling to deal with hot conditions. Sinner was on the brink of beating Juan Manuel Cerundolo at Roland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/h2>\n