Sinner fights back from two sets down to survive Wimbledon scare
Jannik Sinner was pushed to five sets, fell on Centre Court and bled from a foot before beating Miomir Kecmanovic to keep his Wimbledon defence alive.
Jannik Sinner was forced into a draining five-set fight on Centre Court before finally overcoming Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 to reach the second round at Wimbledon. The world No. 1 recovered from a set down twice and survived 3 hours and 28 minutes of pressure that exposed real strain beneath the defending champion’s usual composure.
Sinner’s start was untidy, and the match quickly became less about control than survival. Kecmanovic, ranked 50th and making his seventh Wimbledon appearance, dragged the Italian into a contest that stretched well beyond the clean opening expected of a defending champion beginning play on Centre Court as tradition dictates on the first Monday. Sinner had opened the Championships as the men’s titleholder, but the stage did not protect him from a stern examination.
The turning point came after Sinner stumbled on the grass and later showed a bleeding foot or shoe issue during the contest, another reminder that this was not a polished title-defence opener but a physical scramble. That made the victory more revealing than reassuring. Sinner had not played since his shock second-round defeat at Roland Garros in Paris, and the rust was visible in the length of the match, the lost tiebreak, and the fact that he had to reset twice after dropping sets.
The result extended Sinner’s Wimbledon winning streak to eight matches, but it also handed rivals a clearer sense of where he can be made uncomfortable. He remains capable of escaping trouble, yet the combination of a heavy five-set workload, a fall, and a long layoff from his last match suggests his timing and stamina were not at their sharpest. Kecmanovic did not complete the upset, but he forced Sinner into a contest that asked tougher questions than a straightforward first-round defence should.
For Sinner, the victory was enough to move on. For everyone else in the draw, it was a first look at a champion who is still vulnerable when the match is stretched, disrupted and made physical.
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