“I feel well prepared” – Under a Wimbledon heat wave, Sinner trusts a slow build toward another title
As a heat wave hits Wimbledon, defending champion Jannik Sinner is embracing a slow and steady approach. The world No. 1, who has yet to peak, believes his gradual improvement and focus on recovery will be key to navigating the draining conditions and securing another title.
Jannik Sinner, Wimbledon 2026 practice | © Ch. Caillaud / PsNewz
The second week of Wimbledon will be played in the sun’s full glare. A heat wave is building over London, with forecasters expecting temperatures to touch 30°C and to linger near that mark through the coming days; the UK Health Security Agency has issued yellow heat-health alerts for the capital that run until 11 July, and the Met Office’s outlook promises high pressure and “very warm or hot” conditions.
For the players still standing, endurance is about to matter as much as touch – and few have looked more durable this fortnight than the defending champion.
Jannik Sinner has yet to produce his very best tennis in these Championships, but the world No. 1 has treated the tournament as a gradual climb, tightening his game round by round. “I’m trying to step up every day a little bit better,” he said. “I hope that I can show that I’ve improved as a player. It’s a big opportunity, it’s a big honor for me to play these matches.”
I feel like everywhere we play is going to be very hot
The heat is no idle subplot for Sinner. At Roland Garros in May, he led Juan Manuel Cerundolo two sets to love in the second round before wilting in temperatures above 32°C, cramping and fading to a stunning five-set defeat – his earliest Grand Slam exit since 2023. “I struggled and started to feel very dizzy, very low on energy. I tried to serve it out but didn’t have a lot of energy,” he said afterwards, though he was careful not to pin it all on the conditions, revealing he had woken up feeling unwell. “I had no energy today. That can happen. Nobody is a robot.”
That memory has shadowed his build-up in London. Sinner admitted before the tournament that warm weather remained a worry – “I feel like everywhere we play is going to be very hot” – and has been asked about it repeatedly since, if not always warmly.
Pressed on the incoming heat wave and how it might reshape his scheduling, he offered a wry deflection: “It seems like you know the schedule better than me, so I don’t know when they’ll put me on court. But I’m happy either way. I feel well prepared.” Largely sheltered so far by cooler evening sessions, he is unlikely to stay out of the midday sun as the second week – and the mercury – climbs.
Sinner – Struff, remember Halle
That patience may prove an asset as the conditions turn draining. Sinner’s message, heading into the heat, was less about firepower than about husbanding it. “The most important thing now is to rest,” he said after his fourth round.
His quarterfinal brings a distinctive threat in Jan-Lennard Struff, the 36-year-old German enjoying the run of his life, whose thunderous serve could be even more lethal in fast, hot air. Sinner was quick to flag both the danger and the respect. “Very aggressive player, big, big server, so let’s see,” he said. “I have big respect for him. We’ve faced each other a couple of times, and the last time was on grass, in Halle, it was a very, very tight match. Let’s see what’s coming.”
Sinner leads their head-to-head 3-0, though all three meetings came in a single stretch of the 2024 season and only one was on grass. He beat Struff 6-3, 6-4 at Indian Wells and 6-4, 6-2 at Monte Carlo before edging their grass-court meeting in the Halle quarterfinals 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) – the closest of the three, settled in a final-set tiebreak.
Tuesday marks their fourth Tour-level match, their second on grass and their first at a Grand Slam. Struff, meanwhile, is still chasing a first win over a world No. 1: he has lost all six of his meetings with top-ranked players, falling to Djokovic five times between 2019 and 2021 and to Sinner in that Halle quarterfinal.
The numbers around Sinner remain daunting whatever the weather. He has won 34 of his last 35 matches, is unbeaten in his last 11 at Wimbledon and has reached a fifth consecutive quarterfinal here at just 24 – the kind of consistency that has made beating him one of the hardest tasks in the sport. Now the elements add a fresh variable.
If heat is the great leveller of the second week, Sinner arrives at it the way he has arrived at everything lately: a little better than the day before, and in no hurry to peak too soon.
