Baking on the clay: How players are feeling the heat in a French Open furnace

Jannik Sinner has blamed illness rather than high temperatures for his shocking exit while the locker room is divided over the weather at Roland Garros

Jannik Sinner, the No 1 men’s tennis player in the world, was still leading by two sets and serving for a place in the third round of the French Open when it became clear he was in significant danger on the baking clay in Paris on Thursday afternoon. He was undone in the second round of the only Grand Slam he has yet to win, not by the ingenuity of his opponent or even the immense pressure that comes with being the prohibitive favourite, but rather by his own body. The Italian – who had not lost a match since February – said afterward that he had been struggling with an illness.

Despite waving away suggestions he had wilted in the high temperatures, the unprecedented heat wave in the first week of the French Open this year could not have helped his cause. He fell 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1 to Juan Manuel Cerúndolo before a stunned, packed audience on Court Philippe-Chatrier, the crowd veering between cowering from the sun and astonished at the sight of a historic result unfolding. Sinner could barely walk and was completely uncompetitive in the second half of the match.

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