Breaking: Sinner out of Roland-Garros, beaten in the second round by Juan Manuel Cerúndolo after apparent heat collapse
Jannik Sinner is out of Roland-Garros. 2026! The world No. 1, on a 30-match winning streak and the overwhelming favourite for the only major missing from his collection, led Juan Manuel Cerúndolo by two sets and 5-1 – and then his body gave way in the heat. The Argentine, ranked outside the top 50, came back to win 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1.
Jannik Sinner, Roland-Garros 2026 | © David Winter/Shutterstock/SIPA
The incredible happened in Paris : World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is out of Roland-Garros 2026. The top seed and overwhelming title favourite was beaten in the second round by Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerúndolo on court Philippe-Chatrier on Thursday, appearing to suffer the effects of the heat in the closing stages before he was unable to continue at his usual level. The result ends a 30-match winning streak and is the biggest upset of the tournament (3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1, 3h36).
For the first time since the US Open 2023, a player not named Sinner or Alcaraz will win a Grand Slam title. Jannik Sinner’s loss is the first time a male world No. 1 has lost in the first two rounds in the singles draw at this event since Andre Agassi in 2000.
Sinner was leading 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 when he began to show signs of dizziness and discomfort, in apparent heat-related distress, in temperatures of around 32 degrees. He first lost 16 points in a row and seven straight games, committing an unusual number of unforced errors. Serving for the match at 5-4, 0-40 down, he was urged to play by the chair umpire, who came down to meet him on court over a time violation.
Sinner said he felt very dizzy and as though he wanted to be sick. “Should I try?” he asked the physio. The physio told him to try. It was the first off-court medical timeout of the day. He took a second after losing the third set.
Sinner just trying to move
Sinner won his first game in a while at the start of the fourth set. He held two break points at 1-1 but converted neither, trying to play with his arm and natural power more than anything else. He was broken for 1-2, then earned two more break-back points at 1-3 and let those go too.
Broken again for 1-4, he was barely moving between points, a world No. 1 reduced to a player simply trying to move properly. At times, and til the end, it was hard to watch. Three hours in, the match was level at two sets all (1-6 in the fourt) – a scoreline that, an hour earlier, had been unimaginable. Sinner had won one of the last 13 games played. He would only win one of the next seven.
The Italian regained some competitiveness at the start of the fifth, briefly buoyed by the apparent effectiveness of a serve-and-volley approach that shortened the points his body could no longer sustain. But Cerúndolo kept a cool head and tactical clarity, repeatedly forcing Sinner to play one more ball, one more smash, dragging the world No. 1 into the exchanges he was least able to survive.
Cerundolo’s clarity
The Argentine broke first and held to 15 to claim the early lead. A second break followed – 0-3, then 0-4 – the same pattern each time, Sinner sinking to his knees almost after every point. He finally stopped the run by holding for 1-4, only his second game won in 20.
He carved out two break points at 15-40 in the next game, but Cerúndolo’s composure held firm, and the Argentine moved a game from the biggest win of his life at 1-5. Cerúndolo broke him to love in the next game to seal it 6-1 in the fifth, completing the biggest win of his career as Sinner, the overwhelming title favourite, went out in the second round.
The most dominant tennis player
Sinner had come to Paris as the most dominant player the sport has seen in years, and as the clear favourite to win the one major missing from his collection. The 24-year-old Italian arrived on a 30-match winning streak, having dropped only three sets across that run, and was 18-0 on clay in 2026. He had won a record sixth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 title on the way to Roland-Garros and had become the youngest man in history to complete the Career Golden Masters, holding all nine Masters 1000 trophies.
His first-round dismissal of Clément Tabur, in which he did not face a single break point, had been played on Day 3 night session. It was the latest evidence of a player operating on a different plane to the rest of the draw.
The expectation had only sharpened once the bracket opened up. Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion and the one man to have beaten Sinner in a Grand Slam final – the 2025 Roland-Garros final, which Sinner lost from three championship points up – was absent with a wrist injury.
