Hailed as the new king of men’s tennis and the World’s Number 1, the Italian Jannik Sinner has been knocked out of the French Open 2026 by Juan Manuel Cerundolo who is ranked 56 in the world.

Sinner went down 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round.

This year has been unusually hot at Roland Garros and Sinner had to take a couple of breaks but did not attribute this shock loss to the heat.

“I had no energy today. That can happen. Nobody is a robot. I woke up this morning, didn’t feel very well and tried to keep points very short. In the beginning, I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just hit a wall.

“I started feeling dizzy. Very low on energy. It was warm, but not crazy warm. I feel like it was quite OK to play. It was nothing against the heat, nothing against the weather. It was just me today, but it happens.”

The greats of the game, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Sampras, Becker, McEnroe, Borg , Lendl never get undone by weather conditions; they find a way and perform when the occasion calls.

Jannik Sinner has never won a significant Grand Slam match that went on beyond four hours. 

Some commentators complained that today, he was given time to recover while Cerundolo was not afforded that opportunity. They say the top guys in the game get all the breaks and favours. 

With Carlos Alcaraz opting out of this year’s French Open, Sinner losing today and Ben Shelton being defeated by Raphael Collignon, Novak Djokovic has a real chance of claiming a historic twenty-fifth Grand Slam title next week in Paris.

Djokovic turned 39 years old last week.

He plays the talented young Brazilian Joao Fonseca on Friday.