The unthinkable happened on Court Philippe Chatrier. Jannik Sinner, the seemingly unstoppable force of men’s tennis, crumbled in the Parisian heat as his 30-match winning streak came to a jaw-dropping halt in the French Open second round on Thursday.

The world number one, red-hot favourite to claim his fifth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, suffered a capitulation for the ages against Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo, surrendering a two-set lead and a commanding 5–1 advantage in the third to eventually crash out 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1.

“I had no energy today. That can happen. Nobody is a robot,” said a visibly drained Sinner, who complained of dehydration and dizziness so severe he thought he might vomit on court.

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The Italian looked utterly imperious through the opening two sets, his crisp groundstrokes and relentless baseline game dismantling Cerundolo with surgical precision. When he raced to 5–1 in the third, serving for a straight-sets victory, the match appeared a formality. Then everything unravelled.

Sinner left the court for medical treatment whilst serving for the match, returning minutes later a shadow of the player who had dominated clay-court tennis for months. Cerundolo, sensing blood in the water, pounced on his ailing opponent with ruthless efficiency.

“I struggled, starting to feel very dizzy,” revealed the 24-year-old. “I was very, very flat, you know, the whole body. I don’t remember last time I felt this weak.”

The four-time Major champion disclosed he’d woken feeling unwell but attempted to battle through, keeping points short in the early stages whilst his pristine ball-striking masked his physical struggles. But halfway through the third set, with temperatures once again climbing above 30C during France’s record-breaking heatwave, he “just kind of hit the wall”.

Yet Sinner refused to blame the sweltering conditions for his shock exit, his earliest at a Grand Slam since falling at the same stage in Paris last year.

“It was warm, but not crazy warm,” insisted the Italian. “Really it was nothing against the heat, nothing against the weather. It was just me today, but it happens. I don’t want to take anything away from him. He played a very solid match.”

The timing couldn’t be more brutal. Sinner arrived at Roland Garros having swept all three clay-court Masters titles, looking virtually unbeatable on the red dirt. With injured rival Carlos Alcaraz absent from the tournament, the path to completing a career Grand Slam appeared wide open.

Instead, it’s another agonising chapter in Sinner’s tortured relationship with Roland Garros. Last year’s runner-up held three championship points in the final before falling to Alcaraz in a heartbreaking defeat. This year’s early exit cuts just as deep.

“It’s tough to accept because of the position I’ve been in and everything considered, but yeah, now I have a lot of time to recover,” said Sinner, who confirmed he won’t play any grass-court tournaments before Wimbledon.

“As I said at the beginning of the year, this is my main goal here. A very early exit, it was not what I was looking for.”

For Cerundolo, ranked outside the top 50, it was just the third Grand Slam match win of his career. The Buenos Aires native didn’t blink as the match turned, maintaining his composure to pull off one of the tournament’s biggest upsets in recent memory.

“It’s tough for him. I think I was a little bit lucky,” admitted Cerundolo, who faces Spain’s Martin Landaluce in the last 32. “The match was almost lost.”

“I started to notice that something wasn’t good, because I mean, he was beating me pretty easy,” he added. “Tennis is about being in the present day and being better in that match. He’s number one in the world because he’s the best every day. It just happened this day. I was better this day.”

As Sinner departed Court Philippe Chatrier, his Grand Slam dreams in tatters once more, the tennis world was left reeling. The man who seemed destined to dominate Roland Garros 2026 instead exits with more questions than answers, leaving the draw blown wide open.