Jannik Sinner Cracks Joke About Bloodied Shoe During Wimbledon Match

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner began his Wimbledon title defense against No. 50 Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday, 29, and Kecmanovic gave him a little scare.

Sinner, 24, fell down two-sets-to-one, including a literal nasty fall in the third set that briefly sparked concern for his health, before rallying to close out Kecmanovic in five sets.

Sinner’s tennis is always mesmerizing to watch, but the increasing amount of blood soaking through his white Nike sneaker distracted from it. Sinner had a sense of humor about his apparently negligent foot injury during his post-match interview on Centre Court.

“No, no, I’m good,” Sinner said. “It just seems much worse than it is. No, no. I’m actually very surprised they let me keep playing because, you know, all-white turned into a little red. It’s just a nail. I didn’t want to disturb Miomir. I think we both had a good rhythm. It was a great match from both of us, so I didn’t want to take any time. It’s all good.”

Sinner hopes his Wimbledon title defense ends on a better note than his performance at Roland-Garros last month, when he suffered a shocking second-round exit. Sinner is a four-time Grand Slam major singles champion, having won the Australian Open twice (2024, ’25), US Open (2024), and Wimbledon (2025).

The Italian phenom’s next step toward repeating as Wimbledon champion will come against Portugal’s Nuno Borges, ranked No. 48, in the second round on Wednesday, July 1.

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This story was originally published June 29, 2026 at 10:41 PM.