Jannik Sinner Returns To Practice Court At Wimbledon But Only With Heavy Strapping

Wednesday, 09 July 2025 at 13:24

byErik Virostko

It seems that Jannik Sinner will play his quarter-final match at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, but the question is whether he will finish it.

Sinner reached the quarter-finals at this year's grass-court Grand Slam quite unexpectedly. Him reaching that stage of the tournament wasn't unexpected in itself, but it was unexpected because of how it happened.

The Italian player broke Roger Federer's record for the least amount of games lost on his way to the fourth round, but in the fourth-round match, the ATP World No. 1 player was trouble by Grigor Dimitrov.

One of the reasons why Sinner struggled was because he injured his right elbow at the start of the match, but it wasn't the only reason. Dimitrov played exceptionally, and in the third set, he led 6-3, 7-5, 2-2. That was when the Bulgarian injured himself, eventually retiring from the match.

It was an incredibly sad moment for all the fans watching, and even though Sinner was visibly saddened by the development as well, it meant that he moved on to the next round, even if he didn't see it as a win.

"I don't take this as a win at all. This is just a very unfortunate moment to witness for all of us."

During his press conference, Sinner said that he would undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) on Tuesday, and even though the result of that was not known, the first signs were not very positive, as he cancelled his scheduled practice.

Ultimately, Sinner's coach, Darren Cahill, spoke to ESPN, revealing that the Italian eventually hit the practice court, but only for a few minutes on an indoor court.

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"No news on the MRI just yet. He had it earlier today, and he can’t take a day off, so he wanted to touch the ball… So Simone and myself just fed him a few balls out of the basket."

"It’s not a bad thing sometimes [to practise on hard court]. The more you play on grass with the uneven bounces, the more your timing goes off… Agassi used to do it all the time… We’ve done that for a couple of years, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary."

On Wednesday, ahead of his quarter-final match against Ben Shelton, Sinner already appeared on a practice court. The Italian warmed up for his match, but he appeared with heavy strapping on his right arm.

The three-time Grand Slam champion had a protective sleeve, but it could be seen that under it, he had another layer of heavy strapping to keep his elbow in playing condition.

At the moment, it seems certain that Sinner will play his quarter-final match, but it is a question of whether he will finish it, given the unpredictability of his condition.