By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 24, 2024
Count Jannik Sinner’s hip – along with Carlos Alcaraz’s right forearm – among the injuries that are getting better every day.
Will it be good enough to mount a title run in Paris in the coming week? Time will tell…
“The hip feels good,” Sinner told the media on Friday in Paris. “I'm happy to be here. For sure, the general physical shape is not there, where I want it to be, but we cannot make miracles in less than 10 days before the first-round match."
Pulling out of Madrid and missing Rome due to the right hip injury has put the kibosh on Sinner’s momentum, but the 22-year-old Italian is in Paris with high hopes that the worst of the issue is behind him.
“I'm happy to be here,” he said. “Look, it has not been a very easy period for me, not playing Rome, which is a very special tournament.”
No.2-seeded Sinner, who face American Chris Eubanks in the first round at Roland-Garros, says the last images of his hip were positive, which is why he’s taken his place in the draw.
“I'm not concerned anymore about my hip,” he said. “The last tests we made, they were very positive. That's why I'm here. I said I come only here if the hip, it's in good shape.”
Despite that bit of good news, Sinner must now deal with the fact that he’s out of playing shape and his rhythm is not quite right – not the ideal way to enter a Grand Slam, particularly one where he has a good shot to overtake Novak Djokovic in the rankings as the ATP’s No.1 player.
Sinner reached the quarterfinals on his debut in 2020 at Roland-Garros, but has not been back since. He bowed out in the round of 16 in 2021 and 2022, and fell in the second round last year, losing to Germany’s Daniel Altmaier in five sets.
“The general physical shape is not perfect,” he said. “I didn't play tennis for nearly three weeks, which is quite a lot, before a Grand Slam. But look, I just try to play day by day, no? This is a little bit different approach to a tournament… hopefully getting through to the first round can help me a little bit, finding my rhythm.”
Regarding the wide open men’s draw in Paris, with Novak Djokovic struggling to find winning form, Carlos Alcaraz still dealing with a forearm injury, and Rafael Nadal looking like a shadow of his former self, Sinner says that it’s impossible to predict what will happen.
“All these questions will be answered in a little bit more than two weeks,” he said. “Nobody can tell the future.”
Main draw play commences on Sunday May 26th at Roland-Garros.