You have to go back 17 years to find a player who was a bigger odds-on favourite for the French Open men’s title than Jannik Sinner in 2026.
The Italian had earned the right to be considered the one to beat in recent months. Coming into Paris, he became the first player in history to win the first five Masters 1000 tournaments in a season. During this period, he won 29 matches in a row and dropped just three sets. More than a third (10) of these victories were over players ranked in the world’s top 20.
Taking to the Parisian clay on Tuesday, Sinner looked to still be in clinical form as he swept aside Clement Tabur in three sets in the first round, losing only seven games. Speaking afterwards, he played down the pressure on him by saying ‘I do care a lot about what I’m trying to achieve on a tennis court, and the same time, I know it’s not that the world is going down if I lose.’
Sinner’s laid-back outlook didn’t prepare him or the world of tennis for what happened two days after those comments.
In what was a usual move on Thursday, the top seed was scheduled to start play on Court Philippe Chatrier against Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who had never beaten a top 10 player in his career. Sinner was in control for almost two hours and moved to the brink of glory. Then disaster struck.
In one of the most peculiar scorelines in recent memory, Sinner led the match 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 before losing 18 out of the next 20 games that saw him suffer a 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 1-6, 1-6 defeat. During the second part of a match of two halves, he moved gingerly around the court with signs of leg cramping and bent over multiple times following rallies due to feeling unwell. After the match, Sinner confirmed he first started to feel ill in the morning before playing.
The implosion was reminiscent of Sinner’s experience at the Shanghai Masters last year, where he retired early in the third set due to cramping. There have been other incidents during his career, but Paris doesn’t seem to fit in with the others.
“It’s hard to say whether it’s exactly the same thing or not. In my opinion, today it was something different, a mix of many things,” Sinner explained during the Italian-speaking part of his press conference on Thursday.
“I wasn’t able to get myself out of this difficulty, where sometimes I find different solutions. Today I had no energy, but it can happen: nobody is a robot, nobody is made to never make mistakes. Today it went like this, and then we’ll see.”
It is conceivable that Sinner’s implosion was just down to bad luck of being unwell. He isn’t the first player to experience this and he won’t be the last. Although his team are not taking any chances.
“We will definitely run some checks to be sure about what happened to my body, but honestly I think it will do me good not to play any tournaments right now,” said Sinner, who has played 32 Tour-level matches across four countries since March 7th.
“I’ve played a lot over the past two and a half months, with many good moments.”
It is the second year in a row Sinner has suffered heartbreak in Paris. 12 months ago, he was on the verge of being the first Italian men’s champion in Paris since 1976 after having three match points against Carlos Alcaraz in the final. However, he failed to convert them and ended up losing after five hours and 29 minutes of play.
“I can’t compare what happened last year with this year—they are totally different situations,” he states.
“Last year I was playing for the trophy: you can talk about things in a certain way when you’re in the final, before that you can’t.
“I knew very well the position I was in before the tournament, during it, and up to now. It went like this; there are still many Italians in the draw and hopefully they do well. I’ll be back.”
The 24-year-old exits Paris wondering what might have been. His winning run across Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome made him only the second man to win those events in the same year. The first to do so was the king of clay, Rafael Nadal, who is the most decorated player in French Open history.
Could it be that Sinner’s Masters triumphs cost him glory at Roland Garros?
“A very early exit was not what I was looking for, but you also don’t know if things would have changed if I would maybe skip Madrid and play only Rome or maybe skipping Rome and come here. You never know.” He concedes.
Sinner is the first top seed since Andre Agassi in 2000 to lose in the second round at Roland Garros.
