The grass on Wimbledon’s Centre Court was lush and green as Jannik Sinner was handed the honour of opening proceedings for the 2026 Championships.
After the tennis world was stunned by Sinner’s stunning collapse and defeat against Juan Manuel Cerundolo at the French Open a few weeks earlier, there was plenty of scrutiny on the world No 1 as he stepped back on court for the first time since his Roland Garros nightmare.
Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic always has the potential to raise his game to a level that can test the best in the game, but Sinner and his great rival Carlos Alcaraz have separated themselves from the pack in the men’s game over the last couple of years and this match-up seemed perfect to get Sinner back in the groove.
As Sinner lost two of the first three sets, the notion that the defending champion and outstanding favourite to retain the Wimbledon title would have an easy afternoon was banished, but he found a way to come through and win 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3.
The tightness of the scoreline and the big scare Sinner suffered before finding a way through against Kecmanovic was the primary talking point after that match, but a moment in the third set to that match is now being identified as one of the most significant moments of the 2026 tennis season.
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Sinner was not the only player to slip on the grass during the opening days of Wimbledon and it appeared he could have sustained a serious injury as he twisted his knee awkwardly before crashing to the turf during the third set against Kecmanovic.
Sinner found a way to come back from a menacing position to get over the winning line and he was asked about a fall that appeared to twist his knee after the match.
“One fall is a tough one because you can get injured,” said Sinner. “Grass court is like this. Especially the first couple of matches when the grass is very new, you slip a little bit more.
“I got lucky there because things can go wrong very, very quickly. I try to still trust in my movement. It was very important to keep moving in a very natural way, which I did. I’m very glad nothing happened.”
That, it seemed, was the end of the Sinner injury scare and when he lifted the golden Wimbledon trophy after beating Alexander Zverev in the final two Sundays later, there were no questions over the after-effects of that fall.
Yet Sinner has not hit a ball competitively since Wimbledon and after confirming his season has been brought to a premature end due to the knee problem that ruled him out of last month’s US Open.
Details on the extent of his injury and how it happened are yet to be revealed, but former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski is among those who believe it happened during that fall against Kecmanovic at the All England Club.
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“I suspect this knee injury happened at Wimbledon with the fall we saw on the opening day,” declared Rusedski on his podcast.
“The way he twisted did not look good and even though he went on to win the tournament, he may have been nursing the knee through to the end. He played so well at the back end of the tournament that he was hard to stop, but maybe they looked at the knee afterwards and discovered the problem.”
Tennis players and athletes in general don’t tend to reveal too many details of injuries and we are unlikely to head confirmation from Sinner on where and when his injury was sustained until he returns to action in 2027.
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