Jannik Sinner can breathe easy. He was saved. When the heat hit hardest on the blue slopes of Melbourne and he could barely move around the … track due to cramps, the chair umpire stopped the match. The heat was so extreme that new rules implemented just a few months ago forced the game to be suspended until the weather improved. The mercury was 40º when Sinner, 3-1 down in the third set after losing the first and winning the second, went to the locker room.
Eliot Spizzirri couldn’t believe it and tilted his head while showing a wry smile. Fortune had not been on his side and, in fact, the rule had been correctly applied. There was little he could complain about. When the game resumed, now closer to 30 degrees than 40, Sinner had no choice, won eleven of the next 16 games and finished the match (4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-4).
“I’ve been lucky,” admitted Sinner on the hottest day in Melbourne. The organization had to start the day half an hour earlier to try to alleviate the effect of the sun and the chair umpires warned the players that if they reached level five on the heat scale, which is calculated by measuring the strength of the sun, humidity, air temperature in the shade and wind speed, the matches would have to be stopped and the roof of the Rod Laver would also be closed, another benefit for the two-time champion here.
This happened at the Sinner-Spizzirri for just over ten minutes, which allowed the Italian to compose himself, in a scene similar to the suffering he went through in 2025 against Holger Rune, and advance to the round of 16.
«I don’t know if what happened saved him. “I laughed when the heat rule was applied because at that time I was 3-1 up and I found the timing curious,” said Spizzirri in the press conference after the match. Sinner will face the Italian of Argentine origin Luciano Darderi for a place in the quarterfinals.
It was not the only controversy of the day in Australia, because Novak Djokovic risked disqualification in an outburst of rage in his victory against Botic Van de Zandschulp (6-3, 6-4 and 7-6 (4)). The Serbian, when he won 6-3 and 4-2, let out his anger with a ball off the court that came close to hitting a ball boy. If he had hit it, the one from Belgrade would have been exposed to a sanction similar to the one he experienced at the US Open in 2020 against Pablo Carreño, when he was directly eliminated from the tournament.
Djokovic reached 400 victories in the Grand Slams, more than anyone in history, and adds his 18th round of 16 on these courts. His next rival will be the Czech Jakub Mensik, Rafael Jódar’s executioner in the second round.
In the women’s tournament, the highlight was the passage to the second round of the favorites Iga Swiate, Amanda Anisimova and Elena Rybakina and the elimination of Naomi Osaka, who did not show up for her third round duel due to physical problems.
