‘I got lucky’: Sinner survives nasty fall in nervy five-setter
Defending champion Jannik Sinner said he was relieved to have avoided a serious injury after slipping at the baseline and falling to the turf during his nervy first-round Wimbledon win over Miomir Kecmanovic.
The fall occurred in the third set of Sinner’s 4-6 6-3 6-7(6) 6-2 6-3 win, with the Italian superstar briefly clutching at his left hip afterwards, before he soldiered on to seal the victory for a meeting with Nuno Borges in the second round.
Jannik Sinner lays on the turf after taking a fall. Getty
Sinner, who injured his elbow during the fourth round of his triumphant run last year, was thankful that his latest tumble did not cause any lasting damage.
“One fall is a tough one because you can get injured,” Sinner told reporters.
“It’s the most normal thing. Grass courts are like this. Especially the first couple of matches when the grass is very new, you slip a bit more.
“I got lucky there because things can go wrong very quickly. I try to still trust in my movement. Also the third, fourth and fifth sets were very important to keep moving in a natural way, which I did. I’m very glad nothing happened.”
The 24-year-old was asked whether being talented skier in his youth helped him in the situation, but said it didn’t necessarily play a role.
“There are some movements you can’t really control normal,” Sinner said.
“Skiing can help you in certain moments, but not when you fall, when you have zero control. We did a lot of prevention before this tournament because we knew things like this could happen potentially ... and today it happened.”
In other results, Daniil Medvedev produced a dominant win over veteran Marin Cilic, while third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime raced past Alexander Schevchenko.
Australia’s Aleksander Vukic and Adam Walton were both eliminated.
Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff cruised through to the second round in the women’s singles draw with straight-sets wins.
