World No.1 Jannik Sinner has brushed off suffering one of the great boilovers in tennis history, adamant he won't be deflected from chasing more glory after exiting Roland Garros.
Sinner was downed by Argentine underdog Juan Manuel Cerundolo and the searing heat in Paris, seemingly moments away from being able to retreat to the locker room with another win under his belt.
HIs second-round match descended into a dizzy nightmare on Thursday as heatstroke at 33°C melted his superman powers.
From 6-3 6-2 5-1 ahead, Sinner bowed out 3-6 2-6 7-5 6-1 6-1 to world No.56 Cerundolo.
It felt like a seismic shock for the sport, but red-hot favourite Sinner, foiled in his attempt at completing his career Grand Slam, shrugged it off, saying that though it was "tough to take", he was making no excuses for his hot-weather vulnerability that also afflicted him at the Australian Open.
"It was warm, but it was okay. It was not like I was dying because of the heat. This can happen," he reasoned. "I feel it was okay to play. Nothing against the weather - it was just me today."
He reckoned he hadn't been feeling well in the morning after not getting much sleep, and put his woeful day down to a host of issues, including his recent heavy program and the limited recovery time after a late-night finish to his first-round match.
But no-one could foresee the extraordinary drama as Sinner twice served for the match in the third after he'd already been "starting to feel very dizzy, very low of energy" from the middle of that stanza, during which he lost 18 points in a row.
Sinner reckoned he'd never felt as weak.
And at 0-40 down in the 10th game, he really "hit the wall", slumping on to the courtside advertising hoardings on Court Philippe Chatrier briefly, prompting umpire Aurelie Tourte to allow him to seek medical assessment.
In Melbourne, Sinner also struggled, in even hotter conditions, against Eliot Spizzirri, until the heat stress scale hit the point at which the Rod Laver Arena roof was closed and he recalibrated in the cooler conditions, eventually going on to reach the semifinals.
Here, though, there was no escape, as he returned to lose 16 of the last 18 games, after he'd won 16 of the first 21.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz won the past 9 Grand Slams, the streak ends at Roland-Garros 2026!
Who's going to take it?#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/osfUgXemVk— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2026
The sports world was stunned as the 24-year-old had been the most dominant favourite to win any Grand Slam since Rafael Nadal in his peak at Roland Garros.
Sinner was unbeaten in 30 matches, had won all three claycourt Masters titles leading in, and had no defending champion Carlos Alcaraz to threaten him, with the Spaniard sidelined by a wrist injury.
Now, though, after nine successive Grand Slams won by either Sinner and Alcaraz, one of the greatest Slam duopolies in tennis history has been interrupted.
The door potentially opens for Novak Djokovic, who beat Sinner in Melbourne, to now win his all-time record 25th major title. Djokovic was the last to win a major, before the Sinner-Alcaraz dominance, at the 2023 US Open.
But now, everyone will be dreaming, including Alex de Minaur who could face the Serb in the quarterfinal.
Yet Sinner and his team, co-headed by Aussie super-coach Darren Cahill, are determined it'll be just a blip. "It's tough to accept, of course," Sinner said, "but now I have a lot of time to recover."
He said he probably wouldn't play any tournament on grass before Wimbledon, where he is the defending champion. "I need really some time off, recover completely, also mentally, and then be ready to go again for Wimby.
"I always try to look the positive side. Played really good, winning three tournaments in a row on clay, hitting the ball in a good way, moving well -- and today was just not meant to be."