{"id":701259,"date":"2026-05-29T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701259\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:26:12","slug":"jannik-sinners-french-open-loss-to-juan-manuel-cerundolo-leaves-rivals-stunned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701259\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner’s French Open loss to Juan Manuel Cer\u00fandolo leaves rivals stunned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not since Rafael Nadal was winning his record 14 French Opens had a player come to Roland-Garros as such an overwhelming favourite to win the clay-court major.<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner had won everything there was to win in tennis over the past three months: five straight Masters 1000 titles \u2014 three of them on clay \u2014 and 30 consecutive matches.<\/p>\n

Sinner exits French Open<\/a><\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner’s French Open campaign is over after the world number one struggles with illness in a shock second-round defeat to Juan Manuel Cer\u00fandolo.<\/p>\n

And with Carlos Alcaraz, his biggest rival, ruled out due to an injured right wrist, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion Sinner would raise the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy and complete a career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

That’s why Sinner’s meltdown amid the Paris heat wave was so stunning<\/a>, especially after he came within just one game of concluding his second-round match in straight sets when he led 5-1 in the third.<\/p>\n

The top-ranked Sinner struggled with dizziness and was beaten by 56th-ranked Argentine Juan Manuel Cer\u00fandolo 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 after wasting two chances to serve for the match.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t feel very well on court,” Sinner said.<\/p>\n

“I struggled, starting to feel very dizzy, very low on energy \u2026 in the beginning, I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just kind of hit the wall.”<\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/p>\n

Juan Manuel Cer\u00fandolo (left) stunned the tennis world with his win over Jannik Sinner. (Getty Images: Marleen Fouchier)<\/p>\n

Sinner’s previous loss came on February 19 in the Qatar Open quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

He had won five straight Masters titles while dropping just three sets.<\/p>\n

“We’ll definitely do some [medical] tests to be sure of what happened today,” Sinner said.<\/p>\n

“Let’s hope we’re ready for Wimbledon. To be ready there, we need to recuperate well and do things right now.”<\/p>\n

But Sinner has a history of struggling in the heat.<\/p>\n

Sinner ‘got lucky’<\/a><\/p>\n

Had the Australian Open’s extreme heat protocols not taken effect, Janik Sinner wonders if he would still be in the tournament.<\/p>\n

He admitted he “got lucky” at the Australian Open in January against Eliot Spizzirri<\/a> when the roof was closed and the third-round match swung his way.<\/p>\n

And he had to retire from a match in Shanghai in October that was contested amid extreme humidity.<\/p>\n

“Shanghai was very tough. Humidity very high. Australia was very, very warm,” Sinner said.<\/p>\n

“Here, I mean it was warm, but it was OK. It was not like I was dying because of the heat. I think today was completely different scenario.<\/p>\n

“It’s tough to accept, of course, because of the position where I’ve been in and everything considered.”<\/p>\n

‘Lot of things can happen’<\/p>\n

Sinner’s exit and Alcaraz’s absence have left the men’s draw wide open, with players sensing a rare chance to claim a major title.<\/p>\n

The “Sincaraz” duo, still in their early 20s, have won the last nine majors, with 39-year-old Novak Djokovic still looking like the player who most likely to disrupt their dominance.<\/p>\n

While the Serbian will be the favourite to capture a record-extending 25th major trophy in Paris, American Learner Tien said more \u200cchallengers were likely to have renewed belief.<\/p>\n

“I can’t speak for anyone else, honestly, but from what I feel all the young guys coming up want to prove themselves,” the \u200c20-year-old Tien told reporters.<\/p>\n

“I think a lot of the guys coming up really have a lot of belief in \u2060themselves, that they belong at this level and that they can challenge the \u200ctop guys for these events.<\/p>\n

“I think that’s huge. Just believing is a huge first \u200cstep and a lot of these younger guys, myself included, are just very eager to go out and prove themselves.”<\/p>\n

\"Jannik<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner did all he could to keep his cool. (Getty Images: Mustafa Yalcin)<\/p>\n

Canadian F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime said Cerundolo’s win had put him firmly in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

“Everyone thought Sinner would win this year’s French Open,” Auger-Aliassime said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not going to be him. I guess that’s the beauty of sports. Not so \u200cgreat for him. But at the same time, everyone will remember what happened with Juan Manuel.<\/p>\n

“He’s a great player with many qualities and it’s going to shed great light on him. Sinner is fine. He’s got \u2060all the light that he needs and he’ll be grand.”<\/p>\n

American \u200cFrances Tiafoe said the rest of \u200cthe field had more opportunities now Sinner had gone.<\/p>\n

“It would all boil down to how players react to \u200cthe opponent in front of them on any given day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now that he’s out, I think everyone is going to have more but ultimately it doesn’t really matter. You’ve got to beat \u200cone guy and whoever is in front \u2060of you.<\/p>\n

“It’s a long two weeks. A lot of things can happen.”<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not since Rafael Nadal was winning his record 14 French Opens had a player come to Roland-Garros as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,1805,754,247159,6010,2591,24143,171805,85,184785,37314],"class_list":["post-701259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-french-open","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-juan-manuel-cerundolo","tag-loss","tag-paris","tag-roland-garros","tag-second-round","tag-sports","tag-third-round","tag-upset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}