Jannik Sinner lost in a tricky second-round match against Daniel Altmaier at the 2023 Roland Garros.
Being considered one of the favourites or one of the dark horses is never easy, especially at a Grand Slam tournament. The young Italian certainly belongs to one of those groups and all eyes were on him also in his second-round match in the French capital.
After beating Alexandre Muller from France, he met Daniel Altmaier from Germany in an attempt to improve their H2H on the ATP Tour, having won in the only previous match at the 2022 US Open in a long five-setter.
Fellow favourites on the Parisian clay already advanced to the third round and Sinner was one of the last players to do so. Carlos Alcaraz defeated Taro Daniel, Holger Rune advanced after Gael Monfils withdrew from the tournament, and Novak Djokovic bested Marton Fucsovics.
And the Italian had to fight probably the hardest to advance in Paris, ultimately failing to do it. In the first set, his German opponent was the first to break and after Sinner managed to break back, the opening set was decided in a tie-break.
But that's when the eighth seed showed his qualities, winning the tie-break 7-0 and taking the first set. He wanted to take the momentum into the second set, but that was marked by solid serving from both players.
The Italian had three break points in the fifth game of the second set, but after he was unable to use those, the set went into yet another tie-break. This time, Altmaier was the better player.
The German led 4-1 early on and 6-3 with three set points to his name. The Italian recovered the mini-break to make it 6-6 in the tie-break, but using his fifth set point, Altmaier won the tie-break 9-7 to level the score of the match.
But the German couldn't find the same A game also in the third set. Sinner dominated that from start to finish, using 50% of his break points and winning the set 6-1 after breaking his opponent two times.
Yet, Altmaier was determined to fight. He started the third set with a break. leading 3-0 early on. But then Sinner followed with a string of three games, making it three all in the fourth set.
The Italian then secured an important break, but he couldn't follow up on it with a hold of serve. He had two match points in the tenth game at 5-4, but brave Altmaier just hung on and broke back to stay alive in the match.
And the German wanted to do more than just stay alive. He took the fourth set into a tie-break, winning it 7-4 and forcing a fifth-set decider against Sinner once again.
Although Sinner fought hard, Altmaier was the better player in the fifth set. He made a good use of his chances and after five hours and 28 minutes, he took care of one of the biggest surprises of this year's Roland Garros, beating the young Italian 6-7(0), 7-6(7), 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-5.
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