Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, was eliminated from the French Open in the second round when Juan Manuel Cerúndolo came back to beat him at Roland Garros, completing the upset after Sinner had led 6-3, 6-2, 5-2 and was four points from the third round.
Cerúndolo, the world No. 56 from Argentina, closed out one of the tournament’s more dramatic reversals as Sinner grew dizzy and cramps began to run up his legs at the precise moment he appeared set to seal victory. Sinner said afterward that he had woken up not feeling very well, and the sequence left him unable to finish the job despite holding a commanding position on the scoreboard.
The conditions in Paris stiffened the story. Temperatures were around 90 degrees at Roland Garros on Thursday, though a French Tennis Federation spokesperson said the reading was not sufficient to engage the tournament’s heat rule. That rule uses Wet Bulb Globe Temperature — WBGT — and permits 10-minute breaks between the second and third sets in women’s matches and between the third and fourth sets in men’s if WBGT reaches 86 degrees or higher; if the temperature hits 90 degrees, outdoor matches can be suspended. There have been no suspensions at this year’s tournament.
What complicates the result is a mismatch between Sinner’s own description of the day and what unfolded on court. “It was warm, but not crazy warm,” he said. Still, he suffered dizziness and cramping in conditions described near 90 degrees, a turn that cost him a match he had within sight. The loss also snapped a 30-match winning streak for Sinner, who had prepared for heat this season — training for hot conditions and winning the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in March on a baking day against Daniil Medvedev.
Heat has been a recurring challenge for Sinner through his rise: he nearly bowed out of the Australian Open in January before Novak Djokovic advanced, and the pattern of struggling in hot weather stretches back to his early years as a top player. Organizers’ reliance on WBGT is meant to manage those moments, but Thursday’s result highlights a thin line between play that continues and play that becomes dangerous for a competitor trying to finish a match.
The unanswered question is sharp: was this collapse principally the result of an underlying illness Sinner felt on waking, a failure of on-court heat-management, or some combination neither player nor officials can yet pin down? What is certain is that a frontrunner’s tournament ended earlier than expected, and the episode will intensify scrutiny of how extreme temperatures intersect with match-day fitness and the French Open’s thresholds for intervention.
