Jannik Sinner has cast doubt over whether he’ll play his next match at the Madrid Open. The top seed raised fears on Monday night when he suffered with a hip issue during his win over Pavel Kotov. After making a last-minute decision to take to the court on Tuesday, he beat world No. 17 Karen Khachanov. But he still isn’t in the clear with the hip injury and is unsure over whether he can compete again on Thursday.
There were concerns that Sinner could pull out of the Madrid Open before facing Khachanov. The Italian needed painkillers during his match against Kotov and was seen stretching out his hip. After winning, he didn’t know whether he’d be ready for the next round.
But less than 24 hours later, he managed to take to the court again for his last-16 contest with Khachanov, coming through 5-7 6-3 6-3. It was a last-minute decision for Sinner, who practised at 12.30pm local time before his match started at around 4pm.
“I decided after the warm-up today that I might be able to play. In my mind I knew that I would struggle a little bit but I also accept this on the court,” he said after the match. “For me, it was just trying to enjoy also the moment because if I don’t enjoy playing tennis it’s tough. So if I can make it where I can say I can enjoy the match, I play. If not it’s better to not play.”
But Sinner made it clear that he hadn’t made a decision on playing his quarter-final match on Thursday, even if he felt that he was ready to face Khachanov. He added: “About the decision on Thursday, I will take [it] tomorrow I guess. Now I cannot say.”
The Australian Open champion confirmed that he and his team didn’t know whether taking to the court could have aggravated the hip injury but he is hoping that things will continue to progress after putting in the work with his physio after Monday night’s match.
The 22-year-old continued: “We’ve done a lot of work after the match, it was a longer night, also in the morning we’ve done some work so I think we saw this today on court that I was moving a little bit better. I still felt it, yes, but the most important part is try to not get worse. In this moment and in this case let’s see how I feel tomorrow, if I’m practising or not, and then after tomorrow hopefully I will be ready.”
