The Sports Guru
Defending champions are supposed to ease through the first round. Jannik Sinner did the opposite, dragged to five sets, knocked off balance by two nasty falls, and made to work for three and a half hours before he was through. This piece looks at a Wimbledon opener that was equal parts alarming and reassuring, and at what it says about the title defence to come.
Jannik Sinner began the defence of his Wimbledon title the hard way, surviving a five-set scare and two awkward falls to beat Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 on Centre Court. It took the defending champion three hours and 30 minutes, a recovery from two sets to one down, and a good deal of composure after a worrying slip, to get the job done. Champions are often defined as much by the matches they should lose as the ones they cruise, and this was firmly the former.
For a player of Sinner's standing, the scoreline reads like a warning rather than a statement. He is the world number one and the man to beat on this grass, and yet for long stretches he was second best to a Serbian opponent ranked well below him. That he found a way through anyway is the takeaway that will comfort him. The manner in which he was taken to the brink is the part that will give him pause.
A Stuttering Start and a Worrying Slip
Sinner lost the opening set 6-4, never quite settling into the rhythm that makes him so difficult to live with, and Kecmanovic grew into the contest with the freedom of a man playing without expectation. The Italian levelled by taking the second 6-3, but the third was where the match turned dangerous in more ways than one. He lost it on a tie-break, edged out 7-6, and fell behind two sets to one, the kind of position that turns a routine afternoon into a genuine examination.
It was during that third set, at 2-2, that the afternoon briefly stopped being about tennis. Sinner suffered an ugly slip, landing awkwardly with his knees bent inwards, the sort of fall that makes a crowd gasp and a player's team hold its breath. He came through it without needing a medical timeout, and afterwards he was characteristically unbothered, noting simply that "grass is like that." It is the surface's oldest hazard, and even the best are not immune to it.
The Champion's Response
What separates the very best from the merely excellent is what they do once the alarm has sounded, and Sinner answered it emphatically. Having ridden out the slip and the deficit, he took control of the fourth set 6-2 and carried that authority into the fifth, closing it out 6-3. The wobble did not become a collapse, which is precisely the distinction a champion is meant to make. Once he found his range, the match swung back to the form book quickly and decisively.
It helped that his level rose just as Kecmanovic's dipped. The Serbian had played the bolder, looser tennis while the contest was even, but sustaining that against a player of Sinner's quality across five sets is a tall order, and the closing stages told. Kecmanovic will leave with credit for the scare he caused and the standard he set. Sinner will leave relieved, and a little wiser about the work still in front of him.
What It Means for the Title Defence
A five-set opener is not the way a defending champion wants to start, and the temptation is to read it as a sign of vulnerability. The more useful reading is that Sinner banked three and a half hours of competitive tennis, came through a physical scare unharmed, and proved he can win ugly when winning pretty is not on offer. Title defences are rarely smooth from first ball to last, and the great champions tend to have at least one of these scrambles in them on the way to the trophy.
The men's game has been unforgiving of late, with even the biggest names finding the early rounds of majors more treacherous than their rankings suggest, as recent Grand Slam exits have shown. Sinner avoided joining that list, but only just, and he will know that a repeat of this performance in the second week would not end so kindly. For now, though, the defending champion is through, bloodied and tested but unbeaten, which on this evidence is exactly how he likes it.
Verdict: A Scare That May Do More Good Than Harm
There are worse things for a defending champion than a first-round fright, and Sinner may yet look back on this as a useful one. He was made to problem-solve, to absorb a physical scare, and to win without his best tennis, all of which is better banked early than discovered late. The slip will have set nerves jangling, and the loose start will give his rivals a flicker of encouragement, but the bottom line is unchanged: Sinner is into the second round and his title defence is alive. Grass, as he said, is like that. So, it turns out, are champions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Jannik Sinner beat Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of Wimbledon 2026 on Centre Court. Sinner lost the opening set and went two sets to one down after losing a third-set tie-break, before recovering to take the fourth and fifth sets. The match lasted three hours and 30 minutes and kept the defending champion's title defence on track.
Sinner suffered a worrying slip at 2-2 in the third set, landing awkwardly with his knees bent inwards, one of two awkward falls he endured during the match. It was the kind of fall that alarmed the crowd, but he was able to continue without a medical timeout. Afterwards he played it down, saying simply that "grass is like that," a reference to the surface's well-known unpredictability.
Yes. Sinner entered Wimbledon 2026 as the defending champion, having won the title the previous year, and this five-set win over Kecmanovic launched his defence. As the world number one and the man to beat on grass, a first-round scare was not the start he wanted, but coming through a difficult opener unharmed keeps his bid for back-to-back titles firmly intact.
After falling two sets to one behind and surviving his slip, Sinner raised his level just as Kecmanovic's dropped. He took control of the fourth set to win it 6-2 and carried that authority into the fifth, closing it out 6-3. The Serbian had played the freer tennis while the match was even, but could not sustain it across five sets against an opponent of Sinner's quality and resolve.
Sinner is through to the second round, but the manner of the win offered both reassurance and warning. He proved he can grind out a result without his best tennis and survived a physical scare, which champions often need to do en route to a title. Equally, the loose start and the slip are reminders that his defence will not be straightforward. For now, his bid for back-to-back Wimbledon titles continues.
Sources: The match result and set scores, the recovery from two sets to one down, the two awkward falls and the worrying third-set slip, Jannik Sinner's "grass is like that" comment, the three-and-a-half-hour duration and his status as defending champion, as reported in BBC Sport's coverage of Sinner against Miomir Kecmanovic at Wimbledon 2026 and cross-checked against the ATP Tour and Olympics.com.
