Jannik Sinner’s injury has been one of the more baffling stories in this otherwise crazy tennis campaign.
After all, whilst we all saw Carlos Alcaraz suffer his wrist ailment in real time and retire from his match in Barcelona, for the Italian, everything seemed well.
He was coming off the back of an unprecedented run of five straight Masters 1000 titles, and had just won the Wimbledon title whilst dropping three sets all tournament. There were no signs of any massive issue, let alone one that would force him to cut his 2026 season short altogether.
Jannik Sinner has not played a match since that July 12th showdown with Alexander Zverev.
How long do you think Alexander Zverev keeps the number one ranking?
He is now guaranteed to be year end number one after Carlos Alcaraz’s shock loss in Shanghai…
There was hope that he’d be back for Cincinnati, and when that fell through, the US Open seemed plausible. When he pulled out of the final major of the year, alarm bells were truly ringing.
Well, after what feels like months of radio silence from Sinner and his camp, at last Brad Gilbert has something to offer in the form of some genuine insight.
Brad Gilbert reveals his Jannik Sinner injury insight
Speaking on the latest edition of the Big T podcast, the legendary American coach began by revealing he’d been speaking to Darren Cahill, Sinner’s main coach, ‘a lot’.
Gilbert revealed: ”It started with, literally, he was on his way to the airport from LA going to Cincinnati when he got the call that they’re not going.
“And basically, he’s been on hold since then.
“And I think it’s like one of these very frustrating things. It’s like, he listens to the doctors, he takes a few days off, goes back and hits. Some days it’s fine, and then he gets that pain in the kneecap. So, and I think now, you hope it’s not too many cooks in the kitchen, but he’s getting, like, he has three different doctors. I think he went to France; he’s going to Italy.
“I think it’s probably one of those, you know, tough decisions where now he’s gonna shut down the rest of the season and rely on rest and strengthening. So no surgery.”
Gilbert then imagined a scenario where Sinner had waited until January without surgery, tried to return, and realised that the problem remained. Then, perhaps surgery might have been the smarter option, as he insisted it is not the same cumbersome and debilitating process it once was.
He finished with a review of the year in general, with Carlos Alcaraz’s long-term injury only adding to what has been an odd campaign.
Gilbert concluded: “Highly unusual. Honestly, I don’t ever remember a year where the top two guys started, and have been so dominant the last two and a half years, missed so much time during the year.
“Staying healthy is a unique challenge. It kind of makes you think about how many consecutive majors that Federer played in, wow, what was he doing so right to stay healthy?”
Andy Roddick recently stated the issue he thinks both Alcaraz and Sinner are having in their shared pursuit of Grand Slam glory.
Hopefully, both will return fully fit in 2027, and we can see these two legendary rivals lock horns once again after having just a single showdown between them throughout this entire season.
