PARIS — Jannik Sinner wasted two match points as he was knocked out of the French Open 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a second-round thriller against German Daniel Altmaier on Thursday.
Sinner, a red-haired Italian who is often cheered on by six fans dressed as carrots — the Carota boys — and was spotted eating carrots as an on-court snack in Vienna, was not his dominant self as he bowed out after 5 hours, 26 minutes.
The No. 8-seeded Sinner, whose best performance at Roland Garros came in 2020 when he lost in the quarterfinals to Rafael Nadal, looked set for a no-nonsense win after cruising through the third set, but Altmaier had other ideas.
While Sinner’s hard-hitting approach works on hard courts, he struggles on the slower clay surface and was eventually worn down by the world No. 79, who won on his fifth match point on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
After an exchange of breaks, the first set was decided in a tiebreak in which Sinner won all the points. The second set was a carbon copy of the first until the tiebreak, which Altmaier dominated, winning most of the long rallies.
It looked like Sinner would hop into the next round as he blazed through the third set, but he paid for his efforts in the fourth, finding himself trailing 3-0. Sinner rallied back and broke for 5-4 then wasted two match points — one when Altmaier’s passing shot clipped the net and took him by surprise — as the German player stole his serve again to send the match into a decider.
Altmaier, who reached the quarterfinals in Madrid this year and the last 16 at Roland Garros in 2020, served twice for the match, eventually shaking off his nerves to end it with an ace.
He went back to his chair as tears rolled down his cheeks before saying: “I love the game of tennis. In the past months, me, my team, we put so much effort all together. We play here, but behind us we have strong teams. That’s why this victory is a team effort.”
No. 4 seed Casper Ruud stayed on course to reach consecutive French Open finals, looking solid for much of his 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri.
“It was a tough match,” Ruud said. “I started well, got a break early and served well myself. That’s the beauty of best-of-five sets. In a normal match I would have won 6-3, 6-2, but here you have the chance to fight like he did.
“He played much better in the third set and the fourth set, and it became very tough.”
Croatian Borna Coric was made to work hard by Pedro Cachin before the No. 15 seed prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while it was the end of the road for No. 18 Alex de Minaur, who fell to a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3 defeat by Tomas Martin Etcheverry.