Jannik Sinner retired with an apparent illness 23 minutes into the first set of the Cincinnati Open final against Carlos Alcaraz, ending a highly anticipated matchup between two of the world\u2019s best men\u2019s tennis players quicker than anyone could have imagined.<\/p>\n
Sinner did not look like himself and fell into an early 5-0 deficit in the first set before he threw in the towel and gave Alcaraz his 22nd ATP title.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the third game, I just noticed that he wasn\u2019t feeling good at all,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI know him. I\u2019ve been battling against him for two years, having great matches, great battles. I know his style, his game. I noticed that he was being more aggressive than he used to be. He was missing more often. I thought that it was pretty weird from him. I noticed that the body language wasn\u2019t the best for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner (ITA), left, talks with Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) after retiring from their match during the Cincinnati Open. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner of Italy leaves the court after retiring during the men\u2019s singles final against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain during Day 12 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Aug. 18, 2025 Getty Images<\/p>\n
Addressing the crowd after the match, Sinner said he hadn\u2019t felt great the day before and he was \u201csuper, super sorry\u201d to disappoint the fans who had shown up to see him square off against Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I would improve during the night. It came up worse,\u201d Sinner said. \u201cI tried to come out and make it at least a small match, but I couldn\u2019t handle more. I\u2019m very, very sorry for all of you. I know some of you on Monday maybe had to work or do something else, so I\u2019m very, very sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinner had called for a trainer after Alcaraz took the 5-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, the chair umpire announced Sinner was retiring from the match.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz also signed one of the broadcast cameras, \u201cSorry Jannik.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the way that I want to win trophies. I just have to say sorry, I can understand how you must feel now,\u201d Alcaraz said following the match toward his opponent. \u201cAs I said many times, you are a true champion, and I am sure from these situations, you are going to come back even stronger, as you always do. That\u2019s what true champions do. I\u2019m sorry and come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner of Italy meets with Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and umpire Mohamed Lahyani to retire from the men\u2019s singles finals during Day 12 of the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Aug. 18, 2025 in Mason, Ohio. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner (ITA) and Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) pose for a photo after their match during the Cincinnati Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Aaron Doster-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
All of this occurred less than a week before the U.S. Open men\u2019s singles tournament is set to begin. The event\u2019s mixed doubles tournament starts Tuesday, in which Sinner is supposed to participate.<\/p>\n
His illness would seem to suggest his participation in the mixed doubles tournament is in peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner retired with an apparent illness 23 minutes into the first set of the Cincinnati Open final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2073,432,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-93221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-jannik-sinner","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}