Jannik Sinner, regardless of his failure to win Roland Garros, will still be the overwhelming favourite for the Wimbledon title.
After all, having won it last year by beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final, his greatest rival will actually not be present at this year’s event.
That alone should make his path so much easier.
However, at present, it feels as if Jannik Sinner is going to lose, it is through truly extenuating and inexplicable circumstances, often related to the conditions rather than his own poor play.
And yet, despite Sinner insisting it was not the heat that proved his undoing in Paris straight after the match, he now has a theory for what might have contributed to such a collapse.
Jannik Sinner tries to explain his spectacular collapse at Roland Garros
Speaking to Australian outlet Stan Sports, Sinner was first asked how he was feeling after his inexplicable loss in the second round of Roland Garros.
“I’m very well, thank you for asking,” he started. “They did all the tests and everything went perfectly. I needed a little rest. After Paris, I spent ten days with my family and friends, something that I value very much.
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“I always think that everything happens for a reason. I have had a lot of time to prepare this tour, I have worked a lot physically, and I feel strong again. The first games are always complicated, especially on a surface where I haven’t played for a year. But I really want to start. I believe that on grass, trust is fundamental, and I hope to recover part of the one I got here last year.”
Then, asked what he thought went wrong to contribute to the most unlikely of losses, given how straightforward the match had been beforehand, Sinner admitted: “It’s hard to say.
“After Roland Garros, we had quite deep conversations to try to understand if the same would have happened if we had played fewer tournaments before. We’ll never know. Every day is different and, if you do a couple of things wrong, you end up paying for it.
“Surely we could have managed some situations a little better, but I also remind myself that I have signed an extraordinary season, winning many games and great tournaments. I have learned from what happened and I think that will make me even stronger in the future. I always try to stay on the positive side.”
Jannik Sinner has made a clear change to his preparation after Roland Garros
It’s now clear that, for Sinner and his team, the heat is his biggest enemy.
It felt like, had that not occurred, the Italian would have cruised through the ravaged Roland Garros draw and certainly stopped Alexander Zverev from winning his maiden major title.
This awareness of such a potential weakness has actually seen the 24-year-old change his preparation, not just for Wimbledon, but for seemingly everything going forward.
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He admitted, after playing at Hurlingham in the blazing heat earlier this week: “Afterwards, there was no wind at all, so it might have been even hotter, but that’s fine. This is exactly what I need, good preparation before the start of the tournament.
“Going forward, we will always try to train where conditions are hottest, because I feel it gets hotter every year at tournaments, so that will be important, but we’ve worked a lot, and today was good preparation.”
