World Number One Men’s Tennis Player Jannik Sinner was on the verge of suffering a heat-induced exit from the 2026 Australian Open before beating Eliot Spizzirri to qualify to the fourth round of the competition.
Sinner got a 6-3,6-4, 6-4 win over Spizzirri but almost lost the game in the third set as he dealt with cramp due to the searing heat in Melbourne, Australia.
Temperatures recorded reached 35 degrees Celsius during Sinner’s match and the Italian struggled with his movement limited and had to receive medical attention.
Due to the heat rule of the competition, the game was stopped for eight minutes as the roof of the arena was closed before play resumed.
Sinner recovered from the setback to win the game and in his post-game presser, he talked about the weather conditions extensively.
“It was hot today, started to cramp a little bit in the third set…and yeah I got lucky today at the point when they closed the roof.”
“It took a little bit of time so I tried to loosen up a little bit, it helped and also changed the way to play certain points and that helped me today for sure” Sinner said.
Sinner takes on fellow Italian Luciano Darderi in the fourth round on Sunday, January 25.
