Fognini on Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal: “With the Big Three, it was impossible…”
Former Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini spoke to Sky Sport and shared his thoughts on Jannik Sinner’s decision to skip the Montreal Masters 1000 to focus on Cincinnati and the U.S. Open, thereby giving up the chance to win all the 1000s in a calendar year. “Sinner’s withdrawal from Montreal doesn’t surprise me; it makes sense with the U.S. Open coming up. And this could be a good opportunity for our own Berrettini and Musetti,” the former Italian player noted.
Fognini then highlighted how this era differs from that of the Big Three: “Today, anyone can win a Masters 1000, whereas in my day with Nole, Roger, and Rafa, it was impossible—partly because they never missed a single one…”
Sinner’s decision is based on a very specific sporting logic: to chase the record of nine Masters 1000 titles in a calendar year, the South Tyrolean would have had to play twelve matches in twenty days between Montreal and Cincinnati, leaving very little time to recover ahead of the U.S. Open. His team deemed this workload excessive, especially in light of what happened at Roland Garros, where accumulated fatigue had taken a toll on the world No. 1’s performance. Sinner himself explained his decision with these words: “After carefully evaluating all the factors together with my team, we made the difficult decision to withdraw from Montreal. It’s never easy to skip such an important event, but we believe this is the right decision to prioritize my health. I’m sorry I won’t be able to be there, but I look forward to returning to Montreal in the future”.
Sinner’s withdrawal from Montreal isn’t the only notable one in the Canadian tournament, however: Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz—who is still recovering from a wrist injury—have also withdrawn. This situation prompted Valérie Tétreault, the tournament director, to speak out rather sharply: “We are obviously very disappointed that Jannik and Novak won’t be joining us in Montreal this year, especially since they also withdrew from last year’s tournament in Toronto. We respect their decisions and understand that, with such a demanding schedule, the players’ health must remain the priority. That said, we believe the frequency of these last-minute withdrawals in recent years raises a broader issue for our sport.”
