Jannik Sinner Is Injured; Adriano Panatta Wipes Out Everyone Else

In recent months, the tennis world has had to do without Jannik Sinner due to a knee injury. The South Tyrolean had hoped to recover in time for the U.S. Open, but unfortunately he was unable to do so; now his goal is the ATP 500 in Beijing, scheduled for late September. Carlos Alcaraz has also been sidelined for some time due to a wrist injury he sustained in April 2026 during the Barcelona Open.

Clearly, the absence of these two superstars has weighed heavily on the entire tour, and Adriano Panatta made no secret of it on the “La Telefonata” podcast: “Without Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the tour is definitely less interesting.” The former champion then analyzed the US Open final: “Ben Shelton moves exceptionally well—I was amazed. He’s improved a lot; he makes far fewer backhand errors than before. In my opinion, he paid the price for his matches against Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe—two extremely tough matches.”

The issue of the schedule remains a hot topic: in recent months, many fans and even several players have complained about the sheer number of matches on the schedule. This leads to a high number of injuries and could convince some players to skip certain tournaments in the future: “It was a huge mistake to extend the 1000-level tournaments to two weeks—it doesn’t really help the players,” Panatta declared.

“They want to imitate the Grand Slams but they can’t pull it off. I’d organize 1000-level tournaments with 32 players, no more, so they can play comfortably over the course of a week and not get too tired.”