Instead of Felix Auger Aliassime, on the Spanish red clay today Jannik Sinner faces the Monegasque MRI. The diagnostic test, after his withdrawal in the quarter-finals in Madrid, will ‘enlighten’ the Italian, his staff (and the organizers of the Italian Internationals) on the extent of the inflammation in his right hip which led to his withdrawal from the Spanish Master 1000 on the eve of the quarter-finals against Auger Aliassime. “My hip has been bothering me this week and is slowly becoming more painful. Following the doctors’ advice we decided that it was better not to play any further and make the situation worse”: This is how Sinner explained his retirement on social media, announcing that he would have undergone other tests and then followed the advice of specialists. Having returned to Monte Carlo and rested since the last match in Madrid, on April 30th, against Khachanov, Sinner will have more than a week to get back on his feet if the MRI confirms, as is presumed and hoped, that the inflammation in the The hip is mild and manageable.
Very sad to have to withdraw from my next match here in Madrid. My hip has been bothering me this week and has slowly been getting more painful. Taking the advice from the doctors we decided it’s best to not play further and make it worse. pic.twitter.com/QJX9WVA4Np
— Jannik Sinner (@janniksin)
May 1, 2024
The Master 1000 in Rome will begin next Monday, May 6, but Jannik, enjoying a bye, should not take to the field before Friday the 10th or Saturday the 11th. To find out more we will have to wait for the draw of the draw, on May 6th. It is conceivable, therefore, that after a few days of physiotherapy, the Italian will return to the field to train and make his debut on the pitch of the capital. That Madrid represented a stage of preparation in view of the Italian Internationals and Roland Garros, moreover Sinner had widely declared on the eve: “It will be a tournament of total preparation for Rome and Paris”, the tennis player had said. “It would be fine for me to win a couple of rounds, but I won’t have the ambition to go and win that tournament.”
There were then three rounds (against Sonego, Kotov and Khachanov) before his right hip advised him to rest. In Rome Sinner is not ‘just’ the number two seed, but the blue who, 48 years after 1976, the year of Adriano Panatta, could give Rome and Italy the thrill of seeing a champion win homegrown. In the capital, with calculator in hand, Sinner will not be able to become world number 1, overtaking Djokovic: the points obtained by reaching the quarter-finals in Madrid would not be enough even if the blue player won the tournament and the Serbian lost immediately . The ascension to the throne is therefore postponed to Roland Garros (or Wimbledon): an element which, in the unfortunate hypothesis that the outcome of the MRI was not magnanimous for Sinner’s hip, would make Rome less decisive in the blue’s planning. There is some anxiety, obviously.