Patrick Mouratoglou Calls Jannik Sinner’s Start to 2026 Season ‘Joke’ and Predicts How He’ll Perform at Wimbledon

The main draw of the Wimbledon Championships starts on June 29, and Jannik Sinner will be competing as the defending champion. He will be seen in action for the first time since his defeat to Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round of the French Open.

He will next be playing at Wimbledon. Last year at SW19, he stopped Carlos Alcaraz from completing the three-peat with a four-set win.

And because the Spaniard will be absent from this Wimbledon as he is nursing a wrist injury, Sinner will be playing as the overwhelming favorite. But then there’s also Novak Djokovic and the newest Grand Slam champion, Alexander Zverev. But according to Serena Williams’ former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, the four-time Grand Slam champion will be the favorite to win.

Mouratoglou thinks the Italian has all the experience of handling the pressure of being a defending champion in Majors. What impressed the Frenchman about Sinner the most this season is the fact that he won five back-to-back Masters 1000s, starting from the Indian Wells Masters to the Italian Open.

This made the 24-year-old the first man to win the first five Masters 1000s of the season, with his win in his home event in Rome making him only the second man after Djokovic to complete the Career Golden Masters.

For 10 years, Djokovic hasn’t lost in Wimbledon against somebody else than Alcaraz or Sinner. Except maybe 2017, but he retired during the match. That’s crazy, no? Alcaraz is out, Sinner is the huge favorite for Wimbledon.

Patrick Mouratoglou said on Instagram

At Roland Garros, Sinner was on the verge of an easy win. But he suffered cramps in the third set and easily lost the match.

I don’t think that what happened at Roland Garros is going to affect Jannik Sinner’s performance or Jannik Sinner’s confidence. I mean, look at what he’s done since January; it’s a joke how many matches he won in a row. All those Masters 1000. So he will be the huge favorite. To be the defending champion is always an extra pressure, but I think that Jannik is really used to that kind of pressure. He is the huge favorite, and I think he’s in the best position to win the title.

Patrick Mouratoglou added

Had he won the French Open, he would have become the first man since Alcaraz’s win at this year’s Australian Open to complete the Career Grand Slam and the seventh man overall in the Open Era.

Adriano Panatta says Jannik Sinner’s defeat in Paris makes him more human

Because of Jannik Sinner’s consistency, he gets the label of a robot or AI. But according to compatriot Adriano Panatta, the dramatic defeat at the French Open showed that Sinner, at the end of the day, is only a human, and not someone invincible.

What happened to him in Paris – and it can happen to anyone, I experienced it too – makes him more likeable and human. Otherwise, he would have become the unbeatable man. They already called him a robot, which is a horrible thing. It’s logical that he is p***ed off, but even if it seems paradoxical, I think he made a good impression.

Adriano Panatta told Citofonare Rai 2

Had Sinner won in the French capital, he would have become the first Italian man since Panatta in 1976 to win this title. Flavio Cobolli had the chance to achieve this, but he fell in five sets to Alexander Zverev in the final. It was Sascha’s first win after three defeats in the Major finals.

Sinner withdrew from the Halle Open, choosing to skip warm-up tournaments before the biggest grass-court event of the season. Last year in Halle, he lost to eventual champion Alexander Bublik in the second round.

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