Defending Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner battled through to the quarter-finals but it’s fair to say that the win over Holger Rune didn’t come without incident.
The world number one came through in four sets. However, Sinner was battling with illness and looked out of sorts for large parts of the match in terms of his health.
Sinner equalled a 44-year record in coming through the match. He emerged victorious in four sets, beating the Danish performer 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The Italian will hope to recover well ahead of his quarter-final. Sinner explained that something felt strange before the match and it will be hoped that he can get better before the next game.
It’s never nice to see someone seriously struggling out on the court. At one point, Sinner was sat with a cold towel over his head and he was visibly shaking.
The heat is intense in Australia and clearly Sinner was feeling things as he tried to reach the last eight of the tournament and he will want to defend his title.
Courier is working at the tournament in a media capacity and Melbourne will hold happy memories for the player who won in 1992 and 1993.
He’s confessed that he spoke to Sinner’s coach – Darren Cahill – during a break in the match and he delivered some information on the Italian’s wellbeing.
He said on Eurosport: “I bumped into Darren Cahill during the break in the match when the players were off the court in the hallway and I said he doesn’t look good and Darren said that he couldn’t even warm up today, he woke up today and he’s not right.
“He didn’t go into real detail, I expect the real media will ask more penetrating questions than I am capable of.
“But I think Jannik has also learnt how to keep the information tight as he doesn’t want his next opponent to have an advantage either.”
Sinner is bidding to retain his title and further extend his huge advantage on Alexander Zverev at the top of the world rankings.
His clear signs of exhaustion and fatigue during his last 16 win over Rune don’t bode well, however, and he will need to rest and recuperate ahead of his next match.
After the match, he spoke to Eurosport about how he was feeling and he was keen not to give too much away ahead of his quarter-final game.
He said: “Yeah, I don’t want to talk, you know, so much how I felt today. I was not feeling really well. You know, I think we saw that today, I was struggling physically. Came here as late as possible.
“You know, I knew that it was going to be very, very difficult today. You know, playing against a tough opponent, but also playing against myself a little bit.
“I knew this before. I tried to handle the situation on the court as good as I could, which I think today I handled, you know, as well as possible. You know, happy to be in the next round.”
Sinner enjoyed a brilliant year last year but even then it wasn’t without some issues when it came to illness.
His defeat to Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-final of Wimbledon saw him take ill and require some assistance with dehydration and clearly there is a bit of a cause for concern.
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