MONTE CARLO — World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is reportedly losing patience with a persistent knee injury that has kept him out of competition since winning Wimbledon in mid-July, with his team now on red alert as concerns grow over his return to the ATP Tour. The five-time major winner has not played a single competitive match in nearly three months.
The layoff has forced withdrawals from five straight events — Canada, Cincinnati, the US Open, Beijing and most recently Shanghai. On Saturday, Sinner addressed the latest absence in an Instagram story, writing, “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play at the Rolex Shanghai Masters this year as I had hoped.” He is next scheduled to play at the lucrative Six Kings Slam exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 21 October, but at this rate nothing is certain.
According to Corriere della Sera, alarm increased this week when Sinner ended a training session in Monte Carlo after just 40 minutes, telling his team, “That’s it, let’s go, I can’t do it.” The Italian publication alleges his team is now on ‘red alert’ and the Italian Tennis Federation is concerned as well. Sinner has reportedly made a number of trips to Milan, Turin, Lyon and more to try to get to the bottom of the issue, including seeing a surgeon specializing in footballers’ knee pathologies, but for now there is ‘no diagnosis’ and ‘no prognosis’.
Corriere adds a separate eligibility note, reporting Sinner needs to play for Italy in the Davis Cup this year or next if he wants to have a chance of representing his country at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. For the time being, that requirement is far less urgent than resolving the troubling knee complaint that has stalled his season since Wimbledon.