The Times of India at Wimbledon: Jannik Sinner arrived at Wimbledon having left little to chance.After his dramatic collapse in the second-round of the French Open, where he stood on the threshold of victory before melting in the heat, the 24-year-old underwent a battery of tests to understand what his body had been trying to tell him. He responded by training longer, in testing conditions and resisted the temptation to crowd his schedule with tournaments.Still, as temperatures are forecast to climb above 30°C during the second week of The Championships, that episode – where Sinner appeared in complete control against Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, leading 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 before his energy levels dropped alarmingly — has reopened lingering questions.Former Davis Cupper and commentator Prahlad Srinath points at the early part of Sinner’s season, during which he claimed a historic five consecutive Masters titles between March and May.“Towards the end of his first-round match in Paris he was already looking at his box agitated. He appeared physically shaken and exhausted,” Srinath said.In south-west London, where Sinner begins his title defence against Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday under a pleasant sky and temperatures are not expected to top 24°C, he should have little trouble teeing off. Yet match play is a different matter from practice.“In practice you might hit 500 balls, but it is a structured, predictable drill,” Srinath, now a coach, explained. “You can anticipate and control the movement. And then if one is tired, we manage the load, intensity and the volume. But in a match, your shot making is explosive, never mind if it is five or 500 balls. It involves maximum effort.”Sinner himself acknowledged the gap between training and competition. “Of course you cannot simulate 100 % what you feel in a match. We did some changes (after Paris), I won’t say big changes. I believe in details. We are happy at the moment with what we are doing, but the result we’re not going to see here. It’s a long process, there’s no magic.”Yash Pandey, a high-performance sports physio with the Indian Davis Cup team, agrees.The Italian, who has never won a match lasting longer than three hours and 50-minutes and holds a 6-12 record in five-set matches, will nonetheless be pushed to take the scenic route if he is to go deep into the tournament.“This is going to be a process for him,” Pandey said, adding that despite the concerns surrounding the Italian, he remains the favourite. “He knows too that the only way he’s going to lose is because of his fitness. I don’t see anybody else right now, unless somebody comes out really strong on a particular day. It can happen, but Sinner is the player to beat.”The conversation around No. 1s and their fragility does not end with Sinner. Aryna Sabalenka’s startling collapse from a winning position in her Roland Garros quarter-final suggests that even tennis’ most physically imposing players may be operating closer to the edge than it appears, even when in complete control of a match. While Sinner’s issue appears physical, Sabalenka’s seems more mental.The 28-year-old revealed that, after Roland Garros, she spoke again with a psychologist she had previously worked with, feeling it was the right step at this stage of her season.“I feel like I need someone to throw all of my thoughts out to clear my head a little bit ahead of a big tournament,” she said. “I have my team, we chat a lot. Sometimes you have things that you don’t want to throw at your team. It’s really important to have someone you can talk to and you can feel safe with.”
