Roland-Garros: Sinner defeated by Altmaier in fifth longest match in Roland-Garros history

Daniel Altmaier beat Jannik Sinner 6-7, 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in an incredible five-set epic that will go down in Roland-Garros history

Jamie Malachy

June 1, 2023

French Open •Second round • completed

See draw

J. SinnervsD. Altmaier

In the longest match of this year’s Roland-Garros, 79th-seeded Daniel Altmaier overcame Jannik Sinner 6-7, 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a truly titanic tussle for the ages.

In a match with so many twists and turns, it felt inevitable that this would be one for the history books. So it turned out to be, as after the final point the clock stood at 5 hours and 26 minutes, making this match the fifth longest match in Roland-Garros history.

Sinner misses opportunities in Roland-Garros thriller

Sinner will rue many missed opportunities, as the story of his match was one of profligacy on a litany of break points generated. In total, he carved out 21 break point opportunities, but was only able to take six of them – a strike rate of just 29%.

It was this that hurt the young Italian. Nevertheless, he played simply breathtaking tennis at times – as did Altmaier.

The German played a relentless attacking game, matching power with precision as he pinned Sinner well behind the baseline during many lengthy exchanges.

There was very little to separate the two in closely-fought first set, but Altmaier’s range went missing in the tiebreak as Sinner breezed through it 7-0.

The second set breaker went in the opposite direction, however, as the German refused to go away, before Sinner’s clay-court quality came to the fore in a one-sided fourth set, the Italian taking that one 6-1.

The fourth set will serve as a painful memory for Jannik Sinner, who fell a break behind early on, before gaining parity and breaking again to serve for the match.

He was unable to take that opportunity to draw a line under proceedings, though, and was broken by Altmaier who then succeeded in dragging Sinner into a tiebreak. The 79th seed won that breaker 7-4, before moving a break up in the final set as his young opponent appeared to be fading both physically and mentally.

Electric end to a Roland-Garros all-time classic

In an astonishing finish to the match, however, Sinner did to Altmaier what the German had done to him in the previous set and broke Altmaier as he was serving for the match at 5-4.

But, after more than 5 hours on court, Sinner’s serve had abandoned him through sheer fatigue. Altmaier pounced on the weakness again to break straight back in the eleventh game to move into a 6-5 lead.

In the final game, Altmaier led 40-0 before Sinner dug in to save all three consecutive match points. Sinner then saved a fourth match point on Altmaier’s advantage with a flurry of astonishing retrievals before hitting an incredible passing cross-court forehand from the very back of the arena.

Altmaier fended off three break points, before eventually managing to hold serve and close out an utterly astounding win with an unreturned serve.

When asked in his on-court interview how he was able to come through a match of such high quality, Altmaier responded, “I just love the game of tennis. That’s why”.

“In the past months, me and my team have been putting so much effort altogether… This victory is a team effort”, the German added.

Altmaier reward for such a remarkable win is a clash with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 28 seed, in the next round.

Paris (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Stade Roland-Garros, clay, EUR 49.600.000, most recent results first):