Jannik Sinner and the curse of number one

“I am not a robot, I can make mistakes,” Jannik Sinner at a press conference in Paris tried to explain his incredible elimination at Roland Garros, which occurred under peculiar circumstances. After dominating the first two sets and being ahead in the third 5-1, the Azure suffered an incredible physical collapse that debilitated him until he was defeated in the fifth set.

The Azure spoke of the need to recover, especially mentally, ahead of Wimbledon. And the psychological rather than the physical factor may have been the real obstacle for the South Tyrolean, who had arrived in Paris as a big favorite after winning the first five Masters 1000s of the year, something no one had managed to do in the history of tennis.

The pressure to maintain the lead and his number one status may have worn him down, just as it did to his great archrival Carlos Alcaraz in the past.

Telling the drama of what happened on the Philippe Chatrier is the final score: 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 in favor of Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo. Sinner had dominated the first two sets with full authority, only to suffer a devastating physical collapse that rendered him virtually immobile on the court in the last three partials. With this defeat, the South Tyrolean’s extraordinary string of consecutive victories stops at 30. At 5-4 in the third set, with Cerundolo at 0-40, the world number one had already asked for the physiotherapist’s intervention, confessing, “I don’t feel good, I feel that I need to vomit.”

Cerundolo himself showed great respect and even sorrow for his opponent: “I had not won more than three games in a set, I was a bit lucky, I feel sorry for Jannik. He deserves to win so many Slams, I don’t know what happened to him, whether it was cramps or what. I hope he can recover quickly.”