French Open semi-final will be contested by surprise name after Jannik Sinner defeat at Roland Garros
A surprise player is guaranteed to contest a French Open semi-final this year following world number one Jannik Sinner's shock defeat.
The Italian was dumped out of Roland Garros in the second round by Juan Manuel Cerundolo, who is ranked at world number 56, on Thursday.
Sinner reached the final of the French Open last year and was the heavy favourite to win it this time around following Carlos Alcaraz's injury withdrawal.
He won the first two sets comfortably against Cerundolo and was 5-1 up in what looked like being the decisive third set.
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But he then lost three games in a row before calling for the physio as he was about to lose a fourth.
The 24-year-old complained of feeling 'dizzy' and said he 'wanted to vomit'.
Sinner lost the fourth set 6-1 and appeared physically unable to stretch towards the ball on a number of occasions.
Cerundolo then completed his comeback by winning the fifth set and the match, with Sinner having lost 24 of the final 27 points contested.
Sinner explained in his media conference that he had 'no energy' and 'started feeling dizzy', though didn't blame the 34 degrees Celsius weather conditions in Paris.
"I had no energy today. That can happen. Nobody is a robot," he said.
"I woke up this morning, didn't feel very well and tried to keep points very short. In the beginning, I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just hit a wall.
"I started feeling dizzy. Very low on energy. I tried to serve it out but I didn't have a lot of energy."
French Open draw opens up
Sinner's upset means that a player from outside the top 16 of the ATP rankings will contest one of the semi-finals at Roland Garros.
American star Frances Tiafoe, who reached the quarter-final last year, is the only seeded player still remaining in the competition in the opening two sections of the draw.
He faces qualifier and world number 117 Jaime Faria in the third round, while world number 103 Matteo Arnaldi takes on Belgium's Raphael Collignon, who is 64th.
In the top section of the draw, Cerundolo's reward for defeating Sinner is a match-up against Spain's Martin Landaluce, who has reached two ATP 1000 quarter-finals this season.
Tiafoe is a two-time semi-finalist at the US Open but, prior to last year's run, hadn't enjoyed any notable success at the French Open.
His primary head coach is biomechanics and sports science expert Dr Mark Kovacs, who began coaching the American in January.
Topics: Tennis, Jannik Sinner
Ryan Smart