Madrid (Spain) – Just as had already happened in the duel against Russian Pavel Kotov in the third round, Italian Jannik Sinner felt discomfort in his hip again in the round of 16 match of the Masters 1000 in Madrid against Karen Khachanov. Even with the comeback victory and qualification for the quarterfinals, the current number 2 in the world cast doubt on the continuation of his campaign on Spanish clay.
Shortly after the game, Sinner spoke to the press and revealed that he will carry out a new assessment this Wednesday to find out if he will be able to go to the court the next day and face Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime. He further stated that he did the same process before the match against Khachanov and that he decided to go to the game just moments before the match began.
“I decided to play after today’s warm-up. I knew I would suffer, but I accepted it. I also try to enjoy the moment because if you don’t like playing tennis it’s difficult. If I can play and have fun, I will; If not, I won’t play. The important thing is not to wake up worse tomorrow and then I’ll decide if I can play, I don’t know yet. Tomorrow I will make the decision”, explained the 22-year-old player.
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Without going into too many details, Sinner also talked about the recovery process for the duel with Khachanov. “My physiotherapist and I worked hard yesterday [segunda-feira], it was a long night. I tried to recover, sleep well and today [terça] we also did some different exercises to try to improve. I am very happy with the process and I hope that tomorrow will be better”, he highlighted.
Caution for the season sequence
To conclude, the Italian said that he feels an improvement in his condition and that he does not fear, at least for now, that the injury will be serious. “I feel better than yesterday. My main goal is to be 100% physically. Today was a different game because it was the first without a covered roof and on a different court. So I had to get used to these conditions, especially in the first set, but I’m happy with the way I changed the situation in the second and third sets.”
“I’m not afraid, but you need to think twice [se devo me expor ou não] because now comes Rome, Paris, then Wimbledon and the Olympic Games. If it’s a situation that gets worse, I’ll think again. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, I’m curious to see how my hip reacts after playing two hours today,” he added.
