ATP Tour

Sinner apologises to fans after Cincinnati retirement: 'I'm super, super sorry'

Jannik Sinner cut a despondent figure as he apologised to fans at the Cincinnati Open after struggling through just five games of his final with Carlos Alcaraz before retiring.

From the moment Sinner was broken to love in the opening game it seemed that something was off with the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. Sinner, who celebrated his 24^th birthday Friday with a semi-final win over Frenchman Terence Atmane, said that he began to feel unwell Sunday.

“I'm super, super sorry to disappoint you [but] from yesterday I didn't feel great,” Sinner told fans. “I thought that I would improve during the night, but I came up worse.

“I tried to come out, tried to make it at least a small match, but I couldn’t handle more, so I’m very sorry.”

Sinner is scheduled to participate in the US Open mixed doubles event tomorrow with Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova, but his participation must now be in some doubt.

Sinner did not specifically address whether he would continue with his plan to play mixed doubles, but may have dropped a clue. Asked to comment generally about switching his focus to the year's final major, Sinner said that he "now [has] a couple of days of recovery".

"I love Grand Slams a lot. This is the main, main tournaments for my season and for my career," Sinner said. "So US Open is going to be tough tournament, but in the same time, I'm looking forward to it. If I'm ready, physically and mentally, I will be ready to push. So as I said, now a couple of days of recovery, and then we get again back to work, and hopefully we'll be ready. So for sure, the main goal here in the US."

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Playing his first tournament since winning Wimbledon, Sinner had not dropped a set en route to the final and was attempting to become the first player to defend the Cincinnati title since Roger Federer in 2014-15.

Instead, he slipped to 31-4 on the year according to Infosys ATP Stats and saw his 26-match hard-court winning streak ended. His last loss on the surface came against Alcaraz in last year's Beijing final.

The reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion has now lost six of his past seven meetings with the Spaniard and trails their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 5-9.

Reflecting on his second consecutive run to the Cincinnati final, the 2024 champion said, "Yeah, I feel like a very positive week. I mean, making finals of a Masters event, it's always an amazing achievement. I feel like in the season I'm playing, it's an incredible season.

"So we'll keep going, keep pushing as I say. Now I have already some points where I need to improve if I want to go far in the US Open. And it was a good test this week, trying to understand where my level is. My level is, is in a good spot, for sure, but in the other way, there's still room to improve."

Sinner's loss in the Cincinnati final means that Alcaraz will have a slim 50-point lead in the PIF ATP Live Rankings when the US Open begins. If both players reach the third round, Sinner, who has spent 63 consecutive weeks as World No. 1, must go further than Alcaraz at Flushing Meadows to retain top spot at the end of the Open.