Agassi on Sinner: No Excuse to Run into A Wall
By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 4, 2026
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty
At his peak, Andre Agassi played the pain game to profound effect.
Taking the ball on the rise, Agassi cracked drives into the corners turning rallies into wind-sprints for depleted opponents and earning the nickname “The Punisher” in the process.
TNT analyst Agassi called out Jannik Sinner’s preparation today after watching the world No.1 physically break down and spiral out of the Roland Garros second round surrendering 18 of the last 20 games to Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Agassi said today “there’s no excuse for [Sinner] to run into a wall” after less than two hours of play.
“Sinner going out was huge. I don’t know if you called him out enough on that, by the way,” Agassi told TNT’s Roland Garros panel of John Isner, Sam Querrey, Caroline Wozniack and Adam Lefkoe. “I mean, I don’t know about your guys when you played or Caroline [Wozniacki] you, but I had a body clock of about four hours when I played.
“And if you gave me hot conditions, it dropped to about 3:45 or 3:50. I didn’t change a lot. If you gave me great conditions maybe I could stretch it to 4:10 to 4:15.
“But to go from him playing five-and-a-half hours last year in the finals and then having the heat tap him out in an hour and 45, there’s a difference between being fit and being prepared.”
The 1999 Roland Garros champion Agassi will be part of TNT Sports’ U.S. coverage throughout the rest of Roland Garros this week.
Sinner is coached by Darren Cahill, who previously coached Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep to the world No. 1 ranking.
Agassi, one of a handful of players to achieve the career Golden Slam winning all four major championships and the Olympic singles gold medal, said Sinner is fit, but seemingly unprepared for the physicality of Slams at times.
“I have to point at a flaw in that kind of preparation because there’s something you can do about that,” Agassi said. “It’s not that that dude doesn’t work hard. It’s not that he’s not fit and he was one game away and the whole draw opened up.
“We all thought we’d see him not even lose a set.”
Leaning on his Head stick as a cane, a depleted Sinner winced as the walls closed in.
Punished by brutal heat, stinging cramps and a steady Juan Manuel Cerundolo, a streaking Sinner hit the wall in Paris last Thursday.
In a stunning collapse, Sinner build a commanding 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 lead only to spiral to the blistering heat and stinging pressure in a free-fall that saw Cerundolo win 18 of the final 20 games.
Afterward Sinner summed up a punishing physical defeat simply: I hit the wall.
“I struggled, starting to feel very dizzy. Very low of energy,” Sinner told the media in Paris. “Tried to serve it out, but didn’t have a lot of energy.
“Fourth set, I let it go a little bit trying to have a bit more energy in the fifth. Very important game the first one. Couldn’t hold. Then it went a bit downwards.
“But, yeah, woke up this morning, didn’t feel very well and tried to keep the points very short. Also in the beginning I was hitting very clean, very good, and then I just kind of hit the wall, and that’s it.”
It’s the second straight Slam where Sinner struggled with heat-related illness. The fair-skinned, red-haired Italian, who stopped wearing black clothes at one point in an effort to cool his body in blistering heat, was down to American Eliot Spizzirri at the Australian Open before officials closed the retractable roof over Rod Laver Arena, which helped save Sinner.
Former AO champion Agassi, said winning a Slam requires major preparation and suggested Sinner’s primary problem may be a pre-match hydration issue.
“I’m sure he has a staff of doctors and people. But I mean repeating the same thing twice and expecting a different result that’s where I call a little Yahtzee on all of it,” Agassi said on TNT. “He needs to figure out what to change. He may need to bring someone in. It’s got to be some form of hydration issue.
“I know before I went out there in Australia and played in best three-out-of-five in hot conditions, I’m drinking 10 to 12 liters of water within 24 hours of that match, plus my carb ratio, four to one protein over carbs, you know that sort of deal. But you have to force it.
“It’s better to have it in you and not need it than to need it and not have it. I question his intake and if he’s doing it properly. I know nothing about his preparation.
“I know he can play for five-and-a-half hours—he’s proven it—I know he’s the best player on the planet right now.
“But I also know there’s no excuse for him to run into a wall at one hour, 45 [minutes].”
Post Comment