Inside the same Court Philippe-Chatrier, Jannik Sinner had come painfully close to victory last year before Carlos Alcaraz turned the match completely around. After the loss, the Italian returned to his bench with just one thing on his mind: redemption.

So when Sinner returned to Paris this year after winning three clay-court Masters titles, the World No. 1 looked convinced that the French Open crown was finally within reach. But instead, his campaign ended in heartbreak once again, as cramps and physical struggles dragged him into a tough defeat, leaving his dream of conquering the Paris clay still unfinished.

Following the match, as the Italian sat for a presser to discuss the nooks and crannies of his loss, he didn’t cite weather as the culprit. Instead, he gave an update about his health and stated, “I didn’t feel very well on court, but it can happen. I was in a good spot, also third set. I couldn’t serve it out. Then struggled quite a bit.”

In fact, during the match, the Italian called for the trainer and said that he felt dizzy and “wanted to vomit.”

Sinner further confessed that he had been dealing with physical issues since the morning of the match, which eventually led to a complete drop in energy during the third set, just when he was only a game away from sealing the victory.

“Even though I was playing some great tennis, but really couldn’t find any energy today. It was a tough spot to be in. But, again, this is the sport. It was warm, but not crazy warm. I feel like it was quite okay to play. Really it was nothing against the heat, nothing against the weather. It was just me today, but it happens,” he admitted.

The loss ends the Italian’s 30-match win streak, which started back in March, when he swept through the events in Indian Wells and Miami, and won all three clay-court Masters 1000 titles coming into Roland Garros. The loss will cost the Italian 1200 points, but given Carlos Alcaraz’s momentary absence from the sport, the Italian will still hold the top spot in the rankings.

Even though the Italian has emphasized that the weather had no influence on his performance today, it is hard to ignore the correlation, as he has had previous struggles with cramping on court at Grand Slams.

Sinner’s Slam Campaigns Keep Running Into Fitness Trouble

No one has to look further than this year’s Australian Open to understand that Jannik Sinner has some issues when playing in hot and humid conditions. The Italian was up against it when playing against Elliot Spizzirii on Rod Laver Arena, as the heat left him completely losing control of his physical prowess in the middle of the match.

However, the Australian Open had a policy of closing the roof in extreme heat, which gave the World No.1 the breathing space to mount a comeback and win the match.

Sinner faced similar issues against Holger Rune at the Australian Open last year. With the Italian struggling, the Dane mounted a comeback and threatened to win the match. However, in a lucky incident, one of Sinner’s serves broke the net, and the time it took to fix it gave the players an opportunity to go back to the locker rooms and come back refreshed, after which Sinner completed his victory.

However, in Paris, there weren’t any lucky incidents for Sinner to regroup, and make a comeback in the match. The Italian’s history also includes him retiring from evening-session matches, like the one in Shanghai last year, signaling that the cramping issue for the Italian is not just a by-product of warm temperatures.

Talking about his future tournament plans, the Italian was clear about taking a long rest and not playing any warm-up events on grass before heading to Wimbledon.