WIMBLEDON, England — After his stunning second-round exit at Roland Garros just over a month ago, many expected Jannik Sinner to make a statement in his opener at Wimbledon on Monday.

He did. Although it wasn’t exactly the one he was hoping for.

Instead of returning to the dominant level he had shown all spring before the French Open — winning all five Masters 1000-level events — Sinner once again looked vulnerable and needed to fight his way to the 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-3 victory over world No. 50 Miomir Kecmanovic. The heavy favorite entering the tournament, the defending champ created seeds of doubt, and showed that this might just be another wide-open major for the sport’s top men. And one in which anyone could win.

“It was a little tight in the beginning,” Sinner told the crowd after the match. “Didn’t play my very best but tried to get into it. It was my first match [of the season] on grass. This also is very important. I’m happy that I turned it around.”

Before the French Open, no one not named Sinner or Alcaraz had won a men’s Grand Slam title since 2023, and it seemed unlikely that trend would be reversed anytime soon. And with the prolonged absence of Alcaraz due to a wrist injury, the 24-year-old Sinner was widely expected to sweep the natural-court surface majors this season.

But of course, that’s not what happened. Clearly plagued by the sweltering heat of the afternoon sun during a Parisian heat wave, Sinner was stunned in the second round by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in five sets, after once holding a commanding lead in the third set. He lost 18-straight points and seven games during his meltdown. Sinner, who has a repeated history in struggling in the heat, said he experienced dizziness, fatigue and weakness.

Sinner then opted to not play in any of the lead-in events of grass and instead focused on recovery and training. He arrived to London “quite early” to get a feel of the grass at the tournament and said he and his team worked on “small details and small changes” in hopes of being better prepared for hot weather at Wimbledon and in the future.

“We are doing as much as we can,” Sinner told reporters on Saturday at the All England Club. “I’m very happy with the work we did in the last two and a half weeks. Very long days. I feel well-prepared.”

During a practice session last week with Novak Djokovic, a seven-time champion at the All England Club, that was recorded for the BBC, Djokovic told Sinner to enjoy the moment of walking out for his first match.

“Walking out on Centre Court on the fresh grass, virgin grass, as defending champion, I don’t think there is any feeling that can match that in tennis,” he said.

On Monday, with the temperature at a comfortable 73 degrees Fahrenheit at the start of the match, and with the nearly full crowd eager to welcome him back, everything seemed to be aligning for a routine Sinner victory. IBM watsonx gave him a 76% likelihood to win at the start and he held a 4-0 record over Kecmanovic. But Sinner admitted, in the excitement of returning to the site of his milestone victory in 2025, that he was overwhelmed with emotions as he took the court.

“It was a very, very different feeling,” Sinner said on court. “There’s a lot of nerves when you go down the stairs behind the court. So also mentally knowing it’s such a prestigious court and such a historical court and coming back here as defending champion means a lot to me, even though every year is different, every year can be very, very tough.”

During his press conference, he called himself “very nervy” in the moments before walking on court, and added there was another level of discomfort as no one had even practiced on the grass on Centre Court prior to the tournament this year.

“It was brand new [grass],” he said. “Mentally you know it.”

All of those feelings of uncertainty showed. He had 10 unforced errors in the first eight games of the match (and a total of 15 in the opening set) and then had back-to-back double faults to get broken in the ninth game. Kecmanovic served out the set by winning every point of the final game.

And some of Sinner’s fears about the untested grass were realized as well. He took a hard fall behind the baseline during the third set and didn’t immediately get up. Soon after, his right foot began to bleed through his sneaker. But while he later changed his shirt after losing the third set in a tiebreak, he never as much glanced at his foot, let alone change his sneakers. He later explained it was from a toenail but said it didn’t impact him at all. “No, it was good,” he told reporters. “All good.”

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Jannik Sinner’s awkward fall leads to bloody foot vs. Kecmanovic

Having lost his previous five matches that had gone to a deciding set, and with the memory of Paris still fresh, it didn’t look promising for Sinner as the match dragged on. Kecmanovic felt the same. Asked if what happened to Sinner at the French Open was a reminder that Sinner was human — and beatable — he agreed.

“I mean, yes,” Kecmanovic said. “If I expect, you know, [it] to be 40 degrees and to play four hours, then yes. You know, to get to that point, you know you need a lot of good points, good play.”

Other players were likely watching Monday’s match and wondering if they too could have a chance against Sinner, especially when not at his best.

He will next take on Nuno Borges, who is ranked No. 48, on Wednesday, and Sinner said he was looking forward to having Tuesday to make some adjustments and find “the right rhythm.” Sinner won their one previous match, but it was nearly four years ago and on indoor hard court. Borges reached the semifinals in Mallorca last week and has some momentum on his side.

If Sinner were to advance on Wednesday, he would face the winner of No. 31 seed Ignacio Buse and Jenson Brooksby. One of two rising stars in Rafael Jodar, the No. 23 seed, or Ethan Quinn, the runner-up at Mallorca, would likely await in the fourth round — and both have the potential to play spoiler. Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion and No. 8 seed, could be his potential quarterfinal opponent, and that could be even more dangerous of an outing for Sinner. Medvedev has pushed Sinner to deciding sets in both of their meetings this season, and defeated Sinner in the 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinals.

And perhaps no one could benefit more from Sinner’s vulnerability than Djokovic. The two could meet in the semifinals and with his vast experience and success on the grass, and with time inevitably running out on his dream to win his record-setting 25th major title, Djokovic would do everything in his power to defeat his young rival. Djokovic, 39, did just that in the same round at the Australian Open earlier this year.

Make no mistake, all of these players mentioned will study what went wrong for Sinner on Monday, and have to believe they can push him too.

But still, despite the struggles with Kecmanovic and the potential looming challenge against Borges, Sinner was pleased with how Monday went in his first outing at the All England Club as the defending champion.

“It has been an amazing, amazing day for me to feel this way at least once in my life,” he said. “Yeah, I think I handled the situation still quite well. Yeah, it was very nervy, but very happy that I found a way today.”