Jannik Sinner continued his dominant run at Wimbledon with a convincing 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals. Having been eliminated in the second round of the French Open last month, this is exactly the kind of run he would have hoped for before entering the SW19. The hot temperatures had played a big role in his early exit in Paris. While the heat in London can be intense, with temperatures regularly going a little over 30 degrees Celsius, Sinner is now well prepared for such conditions.

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me,” he said during his post-match interview. “We worked a lot especially after Paris trying to understand what went wrong there. We prepared ourselves in the best possible way. And in any case it was a huge test today. I felt really really comfortable on the physical side today. A good step forward.”

The Italian believes that the conditions at Wimbledon are quite manageable in comparison to the Australian Open.

“It felt okay – warm, but nothing crazy. In Australia, it’s tougher, because with hard court the heat comes from underneath. It was quite dry today, which is a big difference,” he said during his post-match press conference.

There had been major heatwave concerns when the tournament was about to begin. The concerns had only gotten amplified after multiple qualifying matches in Roehampton had come to a sudden halt due to a weather warning. The ELC system stopped working due to extreme heat exceeding 93.2°F, and officials were left with no choice but to suspend matches.

Wimbledon had even introduced a new policy to tackle the hot conditions. They had set the heat index threshold at 30.1 degrees Celsius, and the rule will be activated if the temperature breaches the mark. According to this rule, players will be allowed to take an additional ten-minute break between the second and third sets in women’s singles and between the third and fourth sets in men’s matches. The rule will only come into effect if a player requests it.

The heat rule also provides for the closing of roofs at Court 1 and the Centre Court. But players won’t be able to take the 10-minute additional break if the officials decide to close the roofs. But this rule hasn’t come into play much in the tournament so far. Additionally, no player has withdrawn from a match due to the hot conditions yet, and they have been able to handle the temperatures comfortably. One of the biggest examples of this is Jannik Sinner.

The World No. 1 has elevated his game big time since surviving the first-round scare against Miomir Kecmanovic. Though Sinner had lost two sets in his opening match at the SW19, he has gone on to record straight-set wins in his next four matches. He clearly hasn’t been affected by the heat, and it appears that his training routines have been working.

Sinner’s condition wasn’t the same during the clay-court season. He had encountered physical struggles due to the heat on multiple occasions, highlighting that the fatigue of constantly playing on the tour had taken a toll on his body.

Jannik Sinner wasn’t able to handle the heat on clay

The first time that Sinner’s condition was affected by the heat was during his semifinal clash against Daniil Medvedev at the Rome Masters. After taking the first set 6-2, the Italian started suffering from a variety of health issues during the second, and the hot conditions were a reason behind this. While he hadn’t cited any particular reason for his sensitivity to heat, it is probably because of his pale skin or just a lack of practice in such conditions.

He was struggling to catch his breath at one stage and also appeared to be suffering mentally during a changeover. The situation soon escalated further as he puked on the side of the court and was barely able to stand due to fatigue. This saw Medvedev level up the match and take the second set 7-5.

But Sinner made quite the comeback in the third set. As relentless rain suspended the match until the next day, the local hero made sure that he kept his hopes for the title alive by clinching the decider 6-4.

Though Sinner had survived the heat on that occasion, he wasn’t as lucky at Roland Garros. He completely capitulated in the heat in the second round against Juan Manuel Cerundolo.

He was leading 6-3, 6-2, and was comfortably cruising towards the win. But he started showing signs of severe distress when he was 5-1 during the third set, and the situation escalated quickly as Sinner lost 15 points in a row. He even appeared to have an issue with keeping balance and was seen supporting his back before one of his serves. He had informed the umpire that he was worried about getting dehydrated in the heat.

But Sinner continued to play even though he was far from fit. Cerundolo would end up making one of the most monumental comebacks of the season and recorded a hard-fought 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 victory. This was undoubtedly the biggest upset that took place during the Grand Slam as Sinner was expected to clinch the title, especially because of the absence of Carlos Alcaraz.