Coach Darren Cahill revealed Jannik Sinner was “as white as a sheet” before the Holger Rune match and they absolutely feared that he may not be able to play that day.
If you remember well, that was the match during which the cameras picked up the Italian’s hands shaking during a changeover.
Jannik Sinner© Stream screenshot
Also, his movement was impacted and he didn’t look well at all before both the doctor and the physio came out to the court in the third set to check on him.
After receiving a medical intervention off the court, Sinner returned 10 minutes later.
From that moment on, he looked better and managed to collect a four-set win over Rune.
After the match, there were rumors indicating that he was dealing with pneumonia.
Now, coach Cahill is shedding light on what exactly happened that day.
Cahill: Sinner was as white as a sheet – the practice was canceled – he visited the doctor
“He was pretty bad. We didn’t know if he was going to step on the court. It was that bad. We knew from the day before he wasn’t feeling great, so he got to bed early,” the Australian coach revealed.
“We canceled his practice, I think he was scheduled to play at about 2.30pm in the afternoon, in the heat of the day. We had a warm-up booked for the morning and canceled that and moved it back to midday, and when he turned up to the courts he looked as white as a sheet.
“We canceled all the practices, went to the doctor, they gave him some gels to get the energy up. He rested up, he took an ice bath to get him going and we threw him on to the court cold.”
After surviving the Rune challenge in the round-of-16, Sinner looked much better in his next three matches as he clinched straight-set wins over Alex de Minaur, Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev to win the Australian Open.
In his interview, coach Cahill revealed that he is now “crooked” and dealing with a viral infection.
Tennis World USA