More time to prepare for Wimbledon: Sinner
Jannik Sinner leaves Halle after his second round defeat to prepare for Wimbledon. PHOTO: AFP
World number one Jannik Sinner is looking forward to a bit of unexpected down-time after his second round loss at Halle, to better prepare for Wimbledon.
The Italian defending champion went down 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to the 45th-ranked Kazakh Alexander Bublik in Thursday's second round in the German grasscourt Wimbledon warm-up.
"I have to accept what happened. I'm now going to have a few days rest before Wimbledon, which are going to do me good" said Sinner.
He now has 10 days between Thursday's loss and the start of his Wimbledon campaign, where he seeks to dethrone Carlos Alcaraz, his conqueror in a five-set epic French Open final at Roland Garros earlier this month.
Halle in 2024 is the only grass court title Sinner has to his name. He made it to the semi-finals in Wimbledon two years ago. Last year he was beaten in the quarters.
"Honestly a little break is going to do me good," the 23-year-old told Sky Italia.
"I came here (to Halle), I gave it my all after the Roland Garros defeat, it wasn't easy," he added.
"Despite everything I'm happy enough.
"I've played two matches before Wimbledon, if there'd been more it would have been even better.
"Now I've got to boost myself both mentally and physically, that takes a little time," but for Wimbledon, "everything will be fine".
Sinner's loss to Alcaraz at the French Open was his first defeat in a Grand Slam final.
Prior to that defeat Sinner also lost to Alcaraz in the Rome Open final just after returning from a three-month doping suspension following his Australian Open success.
Zverev overcomes stomach bug to set up Halle semi-final with Medvedev
Alexander Zverev's quest for a first grasscourt title took an unexpected turn at the Halle Open on Friday when the German second seed was forced to sprint from court to vomit mid-match before rallying to defeat Italy's Flavio Cobolli 6-4 7-6(8).
Second seed Zverev started the match on the front foot by breaking in the first game but as he was serving in the second, he requested a toilet break to throw up and bolted down the tunnel.
Once he returned, Zverev struggled with the intensity at first and clearly looked unwell, bending over in exhaustion after points and gasping for breath after a marathon rally.
"I felt fine before the match. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I felt really, really bad. I felt ill, went to throw up and then 15 minutes later I felt OK again," Zverev said.
"I don't know what it was, I've never experienced that before. I hope I'll be fine in the next couple of hours when the adrenaline settles. After that I think it was a pretty good match."
Although nowhere near 100%, Zverev held serve as he slowly drew on his reserves of energy, firing his first ace of the match on set point.
The second set was an even contest as Cobolli relied on his movement to continue troubling Zverev, but the German eventually triumphed in a close tiebreak, finishing the match with 22 winners and 12 points at the net.
The semi-final pits Zverev against Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev, a familiar foe who holds a 12-7 head-to-head advantage and has won their last three meetings.
"I think he's the guy that I played the most in my career. I'm looking forward to it," Zverev added.
"A lot of things happened in the last 18 months. He's one of my toughest opponents in my career. It's going to be a great match and I'm really looking forward to facing him."
Medvedev moved into the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 victory over American Alex Michelsen despite suffering a nosebleed in the second set which forced the 2021 Halle runner-up to take a medical timeout.
However, the Russian served well to deny his opponent a single break point opportunity and wrapped up the contest in 85 minutes as he reached the last four without dropping a set, with the only thing causing problems being the shadows on the court.
"The shadows on the court made the conditions quite difficult. It took some time to get used to it. It was then better in the second set," said Medvedev, who will return to the top 10 ahead of Wimbledon.
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