London: Jannik Sinner was sick and sorry the last time he played a competitive tennis match on his way to a stunning Roland-Garros defeat while trying to complete his career Grand Slam.
But the Italian world No.1 might have felt worse after dropping the opening set, then also the third, of his Wimbledon title defence on Monday to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, who had never won a set in four previous meetings with Sinner.
In fact, Kecmanovic mustered only seven games off him at the All England club two years ago in the round of 32, and had just one top-five scalp to his name from 13 tries.
What would have been a disastrous result instead transformed into a fortnight-saving Sinner triumph as he defied his underwhelming five-set record to post a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-3 victory. He is now 7-12 in five-setters in his grand slam career.
It was the 24-year-old superstar’s first five-set win since erasing a two-set deficit against Daniil Medvedev in the 2024 Australian Open final, and snapped his five-match losing streak in contests that went the distance.
In doing so, Sinner barely avoided becoming only the fifth men’s or women’s defending champion to lose in the first round at Wimbledon. That list includes Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, who was also the top seed when he suffered a four-set defeat to giant Croat Ivo Karlovic in 2003.
“It is such a huge honour to start the tournament as the first player to come out here [as defending champion],” Sinner said.
“I was a bit tight in the beginning, and didn’t play my very best, so I tried to get into it, in my first official match on grass [this year]. I am very happy I managed to turn it around [because] the third set was a very tough one to swallow.”
Sinner’s sole grasscourt warm-up match was in a low-key exhibition in Fulham, in southern England, last week against Brit Cameron Norrie – which he won with little fuss – amid the country’s record heatwave, which naturally evoked memories of his weather-related kryptonite.
His shock loss from two sets and 5-1 up to unheralded Argentine Juan Manuel Cerundolo in Paris last month ended a 30-match winning run, during which he pocketed five Masters titles and seemed nigh on unbeatable.
Sinner was an unbackable title favourite until then, given his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, who completed his grand slam set with victory at this year’s Australian Open, was sidelined with a wrist injury that is also keeping him out of Wimbledon.
He insisted afterwards he was ill, and this was not a case of him faltering in the heat again despite his mid-match collapse occurring in temperatures north of 30 degrees.
London’s weather is more tolerable this week, but creeping back up by next Monday, so Sinner will almost certainly have to deal with challenging conditions at some stage.
Sinner’s four-set success over Alcaraz in last year’s final earned him the privilege of playing the opening match on centre court at Wimbledon. He admitted the occasion left him with jangling nerves and appeared to contribute to his tardy start and below-par display overall.
Little came easily on this afternoon for the usually graceful and unflappable Sinner, including a baseline spill that left his right shoe bloodied.
Him losing the first set was a mild shock, but the assumption was he would rebound with a vengeance.
But Sinner’s agitation was obvious when he dragged a forehand wide on the second point of the second set, and threw his hands up in dismay.
He broke Kecmanovic for the first time a few points later, but even then, it came after a slightly mishit forehand dropped in before the Italian took an ungainly tumble at the back of the court as his opponent’s backhand crashed into the net.
Staying on trend, Sinner needed to stave off another break point to level the match at a set-all.
The theory was that might break the shackles. Instead, Sinner somehow barely reached the service box – on his side of the net – with an attempted drop shot on the second point of the third set.
He dumped two more drop shots into the net in the ensuing minutes.
Sinner is not one to normally outwardly show his emotions, but he briefly stood motionless after fluffing the last of those drop shots, with hands on hips, contemplating his scratchy performance.
Another potential circuit-breaker followed. Sinner produced a sublime drop volley that turned at right angles to give Kecmanovic no hope of chasing it down.
The centre court crowd was in raptures, and Sinner lapped up the adoration. But those same fans were audibly gasping two points later, when he slipped again behind the baseline.
The No.1 seed stayed down long enough for chair umpire Alison Hughes to wander out to check on him – but he was fine, as he ended up being in the match, too.
Order seemed to be restored when Sinner raced to a 3-0 lead in the tiebreak, only for Kecmanovic to rip a brilliant backhand winner to draw level. Even better was to come from the Serb.
Serving set-point down, Kecmanovic unleashed a series of spectacular shots to outlast Sinner, whose desperate dive to stay in the point was ultimately in vain. But the Italian was impressed enough with Kecmanovic’s efforts to give him “five” as they changed ends.
Two points later, Kecmanovic was two-sets-to-one up, and nearing a titanic upset. But he had already thrown his best punch.
Facing a potentially historic loss, Sinner produced his best tennis of the match to break Kecmanovic for 4-2 in the fourth set – and there was an inevitability about the result from that moment.
Earlier, Aleks Vukic was the first Australian to exit the tournament, losing 7-6 (9-7), 6-1, 6-1 to American Jenson Brooksby after holding consecutive set points in the first set. Brooksby ran away with the contest after snatching a 4-0 lead in the second, helped by the aggravation of Vukic’s existing medial collateral ligament strain.
“It was a tight first set, then the second set went in the blink of an eye, and I started feeling my knee a bit,” Vukic told this masthead.
“He’s a good frontrunner, once he starts feeling the ball, and he doesn’t give you much … credit to him, he played a good match, and that first set was definitely key.”
Andrey Rublev was the first major casualty in a five-set loss to fellow Russian Roman Safiullin, while Casper Ruud continued his horror Wimbledon record, but Naomi Osaka and American stars Jessica Pegula and Learner Tien were among the winners.
Marc McGowan travelled to London with Tennis Australia’s support.
Watch Wimbledon from 7.30pm Monday (AEST) on the Nine Network and Stan Sport.
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