Madison Keys believes that Jannik Sinner’s knee injury is not all that surprising due to his extreme style of court coverage.
Earlier this month, Sinner confirmed he had pulled the plug on his season due to this ongoing knee issue. The five-time Grand Slam champion said he “needed to think about my long-term career” when deciding to not play again in 2026.
The 25-year-old hasn’t played since winning Wimbledon in mid-July, with it likely that Sinner will make his comeback at the 2027 Australian Open, or a warm-up event before the ‘Happy Slam’.
Sinner is arguably the best ballstriker in the sport and his defensive qualities have improved no end. The Italian was a very accomplished skier when growing up, with the 6ft 3in player using his flexibility to maximum effect when turning defence into attack.
However, Keys and fellow American Jessica Pegula weren’t too shocked that he has suffered this injury due to his style of play.
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World No 4 Pegula said on the Player’s Box, “I feel the way that he moves is not normal. So I don’t really think it’s that shocking that he possibly has a little something going on. I guess, Novak [Djokovic] is probably the closest, but Jannik looks like he’s skiing on a tennis court.”
Former Australian Open champion Keys then chimed in, “He moves in a way that’s not… my body could never do it because I would break. I mean, it’s not totally surprising.
“The way that he can run into corners or slide into corners and stop and cut. I’m like still running into the stands, and Jannik is somehow fully stopped and already running to the next ball.”
Pegula wished Sinner well, while also admitting the Italian does seem “unbeatable” at times. However, such is the physicality of tennis; staying injury-free is a tough task.
She added, “Hopefully he gets better. I felt for a couple of years there he was unstoppable. And I feel sometimes we always think no one’s ever going to beat him.
“And then something like this happens, and you come back to the reality that it’s really hard to stay healthy, especially at their level, and that now we see [Alexander] Zverev clinch the year-end number one, which we probably thought wasn’t going to happen until we saw the two injuries from Carlos [Alcaraz] and Jannik. So it’s crazy.”
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