London: Jannik Sinner cancelled his scheduled practice session at Aorangi Park on Tuesday amid injury worries ahead of his Wimbledon quarterfinal clash. The world No. 1 had undergone an MRI earlier in the day.It is as yet unclear if the Italian chose to practice at another facility, away from cameras, to measure the hit on the elbow or if he decided to rest. Sinner is expected to take the court against American Ben Shelton in a last-8 clash on Court No. 1 on Wednesday.The 23-year-old, who slipped in the opening game of his fourth-round match against the 34-year-old Grigor Dimitrov, used his right hand to stall the fall and appeared to have hurt his elbow in the process.The three-time Grand Slam winner, who called for medical attention at 2-3 in the second set, had a providential escape when Dimitrov was forced to retire from the match with an injured pectoral muscle. Sinner looked at the video of the fall and thought it didn’t look bad, though he felt the elbow quite a bit during the match. The world No. 1 had cut pace in the fourth-round, the average speed of his first serve in the match had dipped by five kmph to 197.
Sinner, who had dropped just 17 games coming into the fourth round clash, racked up 21 unforced errors, and was clearly struggling in the match. Sinner split with his fitness trainer Marco Panichi and physiotherapist Ulises Badio, just three days before the start of the grass-court Major.The scenes on Centre Court late on Monday was disturbing. Dimitrov, one of the more popular players in tennis, clutched his pectoral muscle and went down on his knees after serving an ace. Sinner was the first by the Bulgarian’s side. Dimitrov was forced to retire when leading the world No. 1 6-3, 7-5 2-2.
