Jannik Sinner seemed for all the world like he was going to steamroll Daniil Medvedev to assume his spot in the Wimbledon semi-finals, but the Russian had other ideas.
Breaking up the patented clash with Carlos Alcaraz that fans wanted to see, he was imperious, taking calculated risks at the baseline and leaving the 22-year-old floundering.
However, his cause was massively aided by a bout of sickness that was quite clearly hampering Sinner throughout.
And, despite the warnings, he continued to play the full five sets.
Jannik Sinner forced to stop by the physio
Now speaking in his post-match press conference, Sinner looked exhausted, just as he did mid-way through his clash with Medvedev earlier in the day.
Slumped onto one of his hands, the Italian was quizzed about that incident, which resulted in an off-court medical time-out which lasted for over ten minutes.
Having had his blood oxygen levels checked by the doctor, he was sweating and looked white as a sheet. Yet he still battled back to force the match to a deciding fifth set.
However, perhaps he shouldn’t have on the orders of the physio, as he revealed what was said during the match: ‘This morning I already didn’t feel great. I had some problems and then with the fatigue. It was tough. Nothing to take away from Daniil. I think he played very smart, good tennis.
‘That’s it. I went off the court. I actually didn’t want to go off. The physio told me it was better to take some time because he watched me and I didn’t seem in shape to play. I was struggling physically.’
Jannik Sinner will be back to claim Wimbledon
Whilst this marks a really disappointing turn of events for Sinner, it will not be his last time vying for the Wimbledon title.
After all, he has made slow but steady progression on grass, and this year it really felt like he could have made a good run at the title.
Reaching the semi-finals last year marked a career-best at this event, and since then he has gone from strength to strength really.
And despite being set to lose a few points in the rankings race, it will be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
He is an unstoppable force, and remains the best tennis player of 2024 by some distance, with Sinner even joining the big three in one metric after his win over Ben Shelton.
Having won his first grass-court title in Halle, and now showcased that last year’s Wimbledon run was no fluke, the coming years are expected to be his and Carlos Alcaraz’s to lose.
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