Jannik Sinner has revealed he struggled with dizziness and a lack of energy during his Wimbledon quarter-final defeat to Daniil Medvedev.
The No 1 seed secured a gruelling first-set tie-break win, but then lost the second set, and, once a break down in the third, he required a medical time-out which saw him leave Centre Court with a physio.
The Italian later revealed it was mostly down to severe dizziness during the five-set encounter which finished 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-3 in favour of Medvedev.
“Already this morning I didn’t feel great. Had some problems. Then with the fatigue, it was tough,” Sinner said.
“But nothing to take away from Daniil. I think he played very smart. He played good tennis. I went off the court actually. I didn’t want to go off. The physio told me better to take some time because he watched me, and I didn’t seem in shape to play. I was struggling physically.
“It was not an easy moment. I tried to fight with what I had today.
“I was not feeling great. I didn’t vomit. But took some time because I was dizzy quite a lot. Yeah, actually off court I had a little bit the toughest time maybe.
“I retired a lot two years ago. I don’t want to retire if it’s only a little bit of illness or sick or whatever.
“I was still in shape to play somehow. The fifth set I felt a little bit better again. The energy level was a bit up. Today the energy level was not consistent. It was up and down. Like this, it’s also not easy to handle the situations on the court.
“It happens. I was never thinking about retiring. You don’t want to retire in a quarter-final of a Grand Slam.”
Sinner’s opponent Medvedev stuck to his task superbly to book a Wimbledon semi-final place for the second year in succession.
Last year, Medvedev was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-3 6-3 6-3, and said after beating Sinner that his main area of focus ahead of Friday’s exciting last-four encounter is his own serve, having hit 11 double faults in beating the Italian.
“Just play better. It’s always a question, did I serve not well enough or has Carlos been amazing on the return this day last year because he won? I have to serve better. That’s still the most important thing on grass,” he said.
“You serve aces, you serve on the line, you’re less in trouble, and you feel better. That’s where you can put pressure on his serve.
“He’s a tough player. He can hit strong. He can slice. He can drop shot. He can volley. He knows how to play tennis. Just need to be at my best, like kind of how I’ve been today, and try to win.
“He hits the shots. Like even today against Tommy [Paul], I just saw a little bit the ending. As soon as he had a shot where you could go for it, he went for it, and he always put it in. He was a little bit on fire. You could see it by the score.
“That’s where it’s tough to play against him because you know whatever shot you hit, he can hit a winner from there. So you try to make his life difficult. You try to hit the shot as good as you can. Maybe he goes for it and he cannot make it.
“But that’s pretty special because there are not many players like this. A lot of players, if you play crosscourt, there is less chance that he goes down-the-line winner, etc. Carlos can do whatever from any position and that’s not easy to play against.”
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