{"id":524689,"date":"2026-06-29T20:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524689\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:13:08","slug":"sinner-bloodied-but-unbowed-in-lengthy-wimbledon-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/524689\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinner bloodied but unbowed in lengthy Wimbledon opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner dug deep with a blood-stained white trainer to snap his five-set losing streak and begin the defence of his Wimbledon title with victory over Miomir Kecmanovic.<\/p>\n

The 2025 champion in SW19 had not played competitively since a shock second-round loss at the French Open last month and looked in trouble on day one against inspired Serbian rival Kecmanovic, especially after a painful slip in set three on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

Sinner battled on despite blood being visible through his right Nike trainer and banished painful memories of five-set defeats to Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Novak Djokovic at majors earlier this year to triumph 4-6 6-3 6-7 (6) 6-2 6-3.<\/p>\n

Victory in three hours and 30 minutes will answer some questions of Sinner’s durability after he had lost eight of his previous nine five-set matches, including five in a row before this nervy win.<\/p>\n

\"Jannik
\nSinner admitted to being ‘a little tight’ in the early stages of the match<\/p>\n

After Sinner lost a close tight-break in set three, the four-time grand-slam winner rediscovered his best form to win five games in a row and a 31st ace of a gruelling contest helped the Italian get the better of Kecmanovic to progress into round two.<\/p>\n

“I was a little tight at the beginning, I didn\u2019t play my very best but I tried to get into it and it was my first official match on grass. I am very happy and a big honour to play in front of you,” Sinner said.<\/p>\n

Quizzed on the red on his trainer, Sinner said: “No, I am good. It just seems much worse than it is!<\/p>\n

“Actually very surprised they let me keep playing because (normally) all white and (now) a little red, but no I didn\u2019t want to disturb. We both had a good rhythm, it was a great match from both of us and I didn\u2019t want to take any time.<\/p>\n

“There is a lot of nerves when you go down the stairs behind the courts and also mentally knowing it is such a prestigious court, a historic court and coming here as defending champion meant a lot. I am very happy to win the first one.”<\/p>\n

American qualifier and world number 144 Michael Zheng stunned top British player Cam Norrie, seeded 26, with a thrilling 6-7(7) 6-2 6-7(2) 6-3 7-6(10-4) victory, marking his maiden Grand Slam win.<\/p>\n

Norrie’s exit deals another blow to British hopes, following the earlier withdrawals of Emma Raducanu<\/a> and Jack Draper due to injuries.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hubert Hurkacz continued the upsets in the men\u2019s singles draw, defeating 11th seed Casper Ruud 6-4 6-2 7-6(7).<\/p>\n

World number 132 Roman Safiullin knocked out 12th seed Andrey Rublev after a battle lasting nearly four hours. Safiullin won 6-4 6-7(6) 3-6 6-3 7-6 (14-12), saving two match points on the road to victory.<\/p>\n

Nineteen-year-old Spaniard Rafa Jodar reached the second round on his Wimbledon debut with a 6-3 \u200c6-3 7-5 win over British wildcard Felix Gill.<\/p>\n

Denis Shapovalov, a 2021 semi-finalist, retired after crashing into the corner fence while facing set point in the second set, handing Pablo Carreno Busta his first Wimbledon victory at the age of 34 after \u2060an 0-7 record.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner dug deep with a blood-stained white trainer to snap his five-set losing streak and begin the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-524689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}