Watch: Limping Jannik Sinner forced to retire in Shanghai as injury ends title defence

Jannik Sinner retired from his second-round match at the Shanghai Masters against Tallon Griekspoor while competing in the third set. The World No. 2 was visibly limping and could not move normally on the court before withdrawing when the score was 6-7(3), 7-5, 3-2 in favor of the Dutch 27th seed.

With this, the Italian will not be able to defend the Shanghai title won in 2024—where he defeated Novak Djokovic in the final—and the draw is now wide open, also considering the absence of Carlos Alcaraz, who opted to take this week off.

Just two days before the start of the Shanghai Masters, Sinner was in Beijing, playing the China Open final against Learner Tien. He took a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory, which was his third title of the season, and quickly traveled to Shanghai, with only a day's difference to acclimate to the conditions and prepare to take the court again.

Apparently, the high demand of the past weeks finally took its toll on the four-time Grand Slam champion, who, after two hours and 41 minutes of battle against Griekspoor, retired and limped off the court with the help of the physiotherapist.

Sinner had been performing well on serve: a total of 10 aces, 76% first serve in, and winning 75% of those points (plus 74% on the second serve). However, he had problems converting break opportunities, wasting all 6 break points he earned, while Griekspoor capitalized on two of the three chances his opponent conceded.

With this, Sinner is eliminated in a week that could have been key to closing the gap with Alcaraz in the race for World No. 1. Without Alcaraz present in the tournament, winning the title seemed almost essential when thinking about recovering the top ranking in the few remaining tournaments. However, Sinner departs early and loses a golden chance to get closer to Alcaraz.

The Italian will now have a couple of weeks off before returning to the court for the Six Kings Slam between October 16th and 19th. After that, he will return to an official tournament starting October 20th at the ATP 500 Vienna Open, with the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals still pending on his year-end calendar. Sinner's presence in the Davis Cup Finals—a week after the ATP Finals—is still being evaluated, as the Italian himself recently stated.