Jannik Sinner has had an interesting year. He didn't win the Australian Open, a tournament he had begun to make his own, then went on a run of winning successive Masters 1000s, only to be stunned in the second round of the French Open when he had a clear path to the title with Carlos Alcaraz missing the event with a wrist injury.
After taking a month off to lick his wounds from that embarrassment at Roland Garros, Sinner struggled to win his first-round match at Wimbledon 2026, having to go five sets to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic. The Italian hoped his second-round match against Nuno Borges would be easier.
It would, but only slightly. Borges began the match serving terrifically, and Sinner couldn't get any breaks in the first set. Neither could Borges from Sinner, though. The set ended in a tie-break that the top seed took 7-4.
Jannik Sinner moves into the third round of Wimbledon 2026 despite not being in his best form
The second set would be no easier, though. Sinner was broken in the second game and appeared headed to drop the set and have the match evened, but the Italian was able to get a late break to get to 5-all. He would then win another tie-break 7-2.
He was playing well enough to overcome the hard-serving man from Portugal, but Sinner is nowhere near the form he will need to win Wimbledon. The odd part is that before the French Open, he was in the kind of form that made him elite. Now, he appears to have regressed toward the ATP field again.
He is fortunate that Carlos Alcaraz's wrist injury is also forcing him out of Wimbledon because the Spaniard would be the heavy favorite to reclaim the crown he held in 2023 and 2024 at the grass-court major. On the positive side, Jannik Sinner still has time to get into his best form.
The third set started strangely. Nuno Borges was broken in the first game, and many likely expected Sinner to run away with what could be the final set. Instead, the ATP No. 1 was then broken, only to break back once again in the third game. Three straight breaks of service compared to how the rest of the match had gone was extremely unexpected.
Sinner was able to remedy his serve, though, and kept holding his own while pushing Borges on his. At 5-4, though, the Italian still struggled to serve out the match. He clearly isn't at his best through two rounds of Wimbledon, but the point is to win and move on. He did that by holding to take the third set 6-4.
Jannik Sinner will next play American Jenson Brooksby in the third round of Wimbledon 2026. Brooksby is an awkward player to play, and he does have a huge serve. He was still only 6-15 this year entering the grass-court major, though.
