Jannik Sinner may have won his first big battle against Novak Djokovic before a ball has been struck in their Wimbledon semi-final, according to former British No 1 Greg Rusedski.<\/p>\n
Sinner and Djokovic are meeting in the last four at the All England Club for a second successive year, with the Italian beating his Serbian rival in convincing fashion when they met last July.<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> was not fully fit in that one-sided contest, but the 24-time Grand Slam-winning legend got his revenge when he beat Sinner<\/a> in the Australian Open semi-finals back in January.<\/p>\n Now the two favourites for the Wimbledon title<\/a> will meet again and Rusedski believes the first big blow in this showdown has been won by world No 1 Sinner.<\/p>\n The Italian has struggled to deal with the hot conditions in recent months, with his stunning defeat at the French Open in May coming after he allowed a winning position to slip against Juan Manuel Cerundolo as he suffered in the Paris heat.<\/p>\n \u2018Nowhere near\u2019 \u2013 Novak Djokovic given hope ahead of heavyweight Wimbledon clash with Jannik Sinner<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Wimbledon schedule: Zverev-Fery get raw deal as Djokovic and Sinner earn top billing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sinner suggested illness rather than heat exhaustion was the reason why he lost his way at the French Open, but that was not the first time he struggled in hot conditions.<\/p>\n Now, Rusedski has claimed the scheduling committee at Wimbledon has done Sinner a big favour by putting his match against Djokovic on in the second spot on the Centre Court Order of Play for Friday.<\/p>\n If the opening match between No 2 seed Alexander Zverev and British wildcard Arthur Fery is a long match, Sinner and Djokovic will take to the court when the heat of the day is fading, and they might even finish their match under a roof in an air-conditioned stadium.<\/p>\n Rusedski believes that it could be crucial to the outcome, as he gave his verdict on his podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cHe hasn\u2019t looked comfortable playing in the hot conditions. He\u2019s still a little bit nervous about what happened in Paris,\u201d Rusedski said of Sinner.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re Jannik Sinner, you\u2019re hoping Zverev and Sinner play for four or five hours so I can kick off around six thirty-seven in the night and they can close the roof, please.<\/p>\n \u201cThen he won\u2019t have to think about the heat. If the first match goes quickly and it is in the heat of the day, then Sinner has a worry.\u201d<\/p>\n Rusedski went on to suggest the match could hinge on whether Djokovic has recovered from his epic five-hour and 15-minute match against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it comes down to the physical fitness of Novak Djokovic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has two days to recover. Yes, he\u2019s played the longest quarterfinals in history, five hours, fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s not forget in 2013 when he had that epic match against Juan Martin del Porto and then came in against Murray and he was a little bit fried in that final. It was baking hot.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get to 39 years of age, even with two days\u2019 rest, it is difficult to get back. His physio is going to be the most important man on the team.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I don\u2019t think Djokovic will recover in time. That\u2019s my view. I hope I am wrong. Because if he recovers, we\u2019re in for a great match.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think at 39, it\u2019s a little tough getting back from that match. I feel like Sinner wants to throw down the hammer. He hasn\u2019t been in a major final. That would have stung big time, losing in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cWill this be another one of those Djokovic miracles? I don\u2019t think so this time. I think we\u2019re gonna have Snner in the final. He\u2019s my pick. I\u2019m staying with him just because the quarter-final match was way too long.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna say it\u2019s probably gonna be a Sinner against Zverev final, but I\u2019m more certain about Sinner coming through and finding a way tomorrow because I give Arthur Fery a chance against Zverev.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Andre Agassi\u2019s old coach outlines what Arthur Fery does better than Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Grand Slam finalist claims Wimbledon chiefs have handed Jannik Sinner a big advantage against Novak Djokovic<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jannik Sinner may have won his first big battle against Novak Djokovic before a ball has been struck in their Wimbledon semi-final, according to former British No 1 Greg Rusedski. Sinner and Djokovic are meeting in the last four at the All England Club for a second successive year, with the Italian beating his Serbian […]<\/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-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","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=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h2>\n