He's been doing this for at least past couple seasons. Goes out early in majority of 500's, and 1,000's tournaments and then in slams works into form advancing to late stages until 1 of the top players knocks him out. Minimum he'll make Semis of 1 of the French/Wimbledon. Wimbledon would be my bet.
*** 2026 Tennis Thread ***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
I haven't seen Jodar play but one of favorites based off odds. Anyone seen him play? He a future slam winner?
Sinner in danger of being knocked out. His body is totally shutting down to cramps. He won the first 2 sets and was up 5-1 in the third when the cramping began. He lost the 3rd and is down 4-1 in the 4th. The dude can hardly move.
The door has opened a little bit wider for Djokovic with Sinner going out.
I didn't get to see it but it must have been bad; goes down 1-6, 1-6 in the 4th and 5th?!
I'm hoping there's a small chance this opens a window for one of the Americans to break through.
Fritz out in the first may have been the best chance, but hoping maybe Paul, Tiafoe, Shelton or Thien can make a run.
I know, I know, easy for me to say. But debilitating cramps in 90 degrees blows my mind when we're talking about some of the fittest athletes in the world, even compared to other professional sports. Australia I can understand, the heat indexes can be crazy. Maybe it's wear and tear from other tournaments, but players in the top ~20 are very strategic about setting their schedules each season. And if it's not that, this was the second round. It would've been more understandable even in the next round, if he'd played two long matches before
Yeah, these guys have the best trainers in the world, and hydration is pretty well understood. Was he just expecting to cruise and didn't take the necessary precautions?
He's had this issue before I think. It could be that his physiology just isn't cut out for playing x number of tournaments, including deep runs at every grand slam, season after season—there are athletes in every sport who have all the requisite talent but just never can stay healthy. But it's not like he's Nadal and is constantly battling muscle, tissue, and bone injuries. It's odd
I'm actually the other way I see some of these long rallies every other day and an suprised it doesn't happen more when conditions get to what they're but I get your point specifically 2nd round part.
This is Sinner's known weakness. I'm sure he will look into everything to try to fix it. Djokovic had similar issue early in his career. He'd struggle to breathe in extreme conditions and would pull out quite a bit. Ultimately he changed his diet and that changed everything.
I've heard trainers say before tennis cramps is less hydration driven and more of a overworked nervous system. Idk if that's case with Sinner but sometimes it's deeper than hydration too
It's true that even when a player is killing his opponent, people who don't play tennis don't think about the fact that he's playing in the same conditions as his opponent and is still exerting energy (okay, unless he has a ton of aces). But I still go back to devoting every waking minute to training for and recovering from playing at that level, and if you break down as soon the temperature gauge hits 85 Fahrenheit or whatever, I think that's more a training issue than something that's bound to happen every so often, even if it doesn't explain 100% of it
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He is not built for heat genetically. Djokovic has the same problem. I think there is only so much they can do. Then you watch these Spanish and Brazilian guys that look unaffected by it.
I think tennis is a sport that shows at the elite level...when an athlete is unable to perform at 100% health...they get exposed! I know Sinner was hurting...but wow! Those results are crazy. Tennis at that level is rarely a sport that you can just "tough it out" and expect to win.
I was somewhat surprised he came out for the 5th set other than the fact that he is a competitor at the highest level.
Then Shelton gets blown out, Tiafoe and Tien sneak out 5 set wins, and Paul faces Ruud tomorrow. I'm thinking Sinner being out isn't gonna matter for Americans' chances this year after all.
Even the objectively top-tier Americans seem to suck on clay, and the first thing my dumb brain goes to is that they probably didn't play on it much growing up. Now, I could be flat out wrong, and I recognize that if you're a prodigy it's not a huge lift to learn how to play on it. But, yeah, too bad they're struggling
