How is Sinner? The illness, the 11 minute stop, the tremors: what Jannik had in the match against Rune. «There is something, I’m fighting»

FROM OUR REPORTER
MELBOURNE – What did he have, on the pitch in Melbourne, Jannik Sinner, today? First of all, the certain news, as reported by the tennis player himself, who did not want to delve deeper into the topic of HIGHLANDS: «I don’t want to talk about it too much, I don’t want to go into details». On the night before the round of 16 match against Holger Rune, he slept well: «Zero problems. On the contrary. If I hadn’t set the alarm, I would have moved on.”

But something was wrong since waking up: «I got up feeling unwellit can happen, in fact I didn’t even warm up.” At that point, in agreement with the team, the emergency protocol that is used on bad days was triggered: «I took my time and arrived at the club as late as possible. I usually rely on my pre-match routine to find concentration: that ritual of behavior gives me confidence, makes me feel safe. This time we followed other procedures, which are usually not done for a match to be played at 2pm. But in this way I understood that the match is much more important than what comes before.”

We asked him if he saw similarities between the illness at Wimbledon 2024 with Medvedev in the quarterfinals (match lost) and the illness with Rune here in Melbourne (match won). «There is no relationship – he replied -. In London I had slept badly the night before (we later discovered due to thoughts linked to the clostebol case, which at the time was not yet public ed.), a Melbourne I rested. But the experience of Wimbledon it helped me a lot: it allowed me to manage the situation better than I had done in London.”

Sinner con Rune he went through difficult times, in which he seemed on the verge of retirement. He asked for a medical time out, during which the tournament doctor (already alerted by Jannik in the morning to the symptoms he was experiencing) gave him a medicine. Even the long break to allow the net to be repaired (providential breakage) had its impact: «It helped me a lot, when I returned to the pitch the color had returned to my face…».

The heat (30-32 degrees) was therebut in Australia it was played in much more extreme conditions and humidity New York it can be much more terrible than today’s heat. Ice on the neck during breaks, constant hydration, dry and clean shirt when needed: from this point of view Jannik did nothing wrong. Yet at times he felt dizzy (ipse dixit), at certain moments he actually seemed less lucid than usual. And after the match, during the cool-down phase, he seemed thoughtful.

What did his head say to impose itself on legs that didn’t turn? «I thought about all the work done, even in the off season Dubai, in December. I thought that I worked a lot to be able to face days like this. I took cues from the past and present, even Rune was struggling. It was a day in which I played tennis well but my body struggled to follow me, there are others in which my body is perfect and tennis isn’t there. Happens. Perfection does not exist. It is precisely in difficulties that you must be able to make the difference with your opponent. So from this point of view I am happy and super positive, I managed myself, I worked well.”

Whether it is a headache in the head on days when he feels particularly under pressure, and which from there is transmitted to the body, or vice versa, only Jannik Sinner knows. The lack of desire to delve deeper into the topic makes one think of a well-known and now recurring theme, which the boy is aware of and is working on. No guesswork. But on days like today Jannik finds himself facing “the opponent and myself”, he said. In summary. Is it an injury? “No”. Is it a health problem? «There is something, I’m fighting». Let’s stay with this and, in view of Wednesday’s quarterfinals, let’s think positively.

January 20, 2025 (changed January 20, 2025 | 11:20)

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