Jannik Sinner vs Holger Rune suspended as defending champion breaks the net | Tennis | Sport

Jannik Sinner’s exciting showdown in the fourth round with Holger Rune at the Australian Open was suspended when world no. 1 accidentally broke the network.

There had been plenty of delays in Monday’s fight, with both men taking medical timeouts.

But the players were brought to a complete standstill when the bottom of the net bounced off the field, with both men eventually leaving the field entirely.

After a dramatic third set, Sinner and Rune both tried to get things under control at the beginning of the fourth. The Italian served for 0-1 when he missed his first serve and sent a ball into the net.

But it hit the cord in the middle of the net with such force that it broke. The referee rushed over to inspect the damage, which was worse than anyone could have imagined.

The base that held the net into the court had been completely torn off. “The net has gone here. It’s properly broken,” said Arvind Palmer in a comment.

Naomi Cavaday added: “Yeah, just snapped off the base so we can’t continue until that’s fixed. There’s so much going on in this game!”

After both men struggled physically in set three, Palmer thought they wouldn’t mind a short delay. “I think both players would be quite happy with the break here, more time to recover. It’s come off the pitch, that,” he added.

But it soon became clear that it would take a while to fix the network. The referee confirmed that play would be stopped, telling the crowd: “As you can see, we need time to fix the net as soon as possible. It will probably take a few minutes, thank you for your patience.”

It was the latest in a series of upsets in the round of 16. Sinner left the court for a medical timeout at 3-2 in the third set, which ended up taking 11 minutes. Rune then got his own visit from the physio just before his opponent served the lead at 5-3.

“This game has been full of delays,” Cavaday said. “We’ve had one of the longest medical timeouts I’ve ever seen at 11 and a half minutes from Jannik.

“There was also a longer shift at the end of the set when he left the court then. We’ve had a medical time-out for Rune. And now the net is completely broken.”

Tournament referee Wayne McKewen had to come out and explain the problem to both players, and Sinner began to pack up. “Are they leaving the court?” Cavaday asked.

“Just signaled, it looked like it was going to take 20 minutes. What do you do? Do you keep them on the pitch? So I think both players have been told they can leave the pitch. They will be able to chat with their team.”

Sinner and Rune left the Rod Laver Arena and returned 16 minutes later to great cheers. The match was interrupted long enough for them to have a warm-up before play finally resumed with Sinner leading 6-3 3-6 6-3 0-1.