John McEnroe has reacted to Jannik Sinner’s shock exit from Roland Garros.
Sinner was beaten by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in his second round match at Roland Garros, despite being the huge favourite for the title.
This was after leading the match by two sets and 5-1, before Sinner started to struggle physically and ultimately lose to Cerundolo in five sets.
When reacting to Sinner’s shock exit from Roland Garros, McEnroe stated his belief that the world number one may have made a mistake in the fourth set that cost him the match.
John McEnroe claims Jannik Sinner put too much effort into the fourth set
After Sinner led Cerundolo 6-3, 6-2, 5-1, he would go on to win just two of the last 20 games in the match.
McEnroe reacted to Sinner’s defeat for TNT Sports US, highlighting the heat as the Italian’s ‘kryptonite’ as it appeared to hamper him once again, despite him claiming otherwise.
“I was watching [Moise] Kouame after the first couple sets, the young 17-year-old French kid who made a great effort to win in five, but I didn’t anticipate at 6-2, 6-3, 5-1, which is absolute cruise control that this thing would turn out to be historic,” said McEnroe. “Not by any means!
“Until you started seeing this, because this is his kryptonite Patrick [McEnroe], there’s no question about it. The heat is a lot of people’s, I hated playing in heat like this, but it is a big time equaliser and it turned out to be the difference maker in this match.”
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As he continued to reflect on the defeat for the top seed, McEnroe highlighted the fourth set as a significant point in the match for Sinner, who he claimed may have put too much effort into this set and should have perhaps saved some energy for the decider.
“I would have thrown the fourth, I think a lot of people would probably agree at this point to try and conserve knowing that there would only be one set,” stated McEnroe.
“He seemingly to me put a little bit too much…he put a fair amount of effort into that fourth set and I think it ended up costing him in the end. He had some chances early in the fifth, but by this time it was looking like the inevitable that Cerundolo would win it.”
Sinner claimed that the reason for his defeat was not heat related and instead that he had woken up not feeling well, but McEnroe did not seem to be buying this.
“He claimed it wasn’t the heat, but his nose was growing as he was saying it, a little bit of Pinocchio there,” added McEnroe.
“Too bad, obviously the guy was going for history, potentially be the second youngest ever to win the Career Grand Slam after Carlos at 22, but either way just blew the tournament wide open right here!”
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Another incident…
Juan Manuel Cerundolo sends message to Jannik Sinner after beating him
Most of the attention after this shock result has been directed in the way of Sinner, but there is also a victor in this match in Cerundolo.
Cerundolo is now into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, but even he has admitted he got ‘lucky’.
The world number 56 wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Wow, what a match haha, no doubt I got pretty lucky but super happy with the victory. Thanks to everyone for the support.”
Following Sinner’s exit from Roland Garros, the top half of the draw is now wide open, with Felix Auger-Aliassime the only top 10 player remaining.
Juan Manuel Cerundolo is also joined in this half of the draw by his older brother, Francisco Cerundolo, who is the 25th seed.
The only former Grand Slam finalist in this half of the draw is Matteo Berrettini, who has not been past the fourth round of a major since 2022.