Jannik Sinner arrived at the All England Club having not struck a competitive ball on grass since lifting the trophy twelve months ago, a deliberate choice after his French Open campaign unravelled in the Paris heat. The Italian, who led Juan Manuel Cerundolo by two sets and 5-1 in the third before cramping and losing in the second round, underwent a battery of medical tests in Milan. “All tests were really good,” he told reporters on Saturday, a line carried by German and Israeli outlets, while Italian reports noted he had been cleared to train in demanding conditions. The episode, which rekindled debate about player welfare in extreme temperatures, prompted a quiet but systematic reworking of his fitness routine.

Speaking in a pre-tournament press conference that lasted just over ten minutes, Sinner disclosed that he and his team had lengthened his combined gym and on-court sessions, removing the rest periods he previously used. “We did everything together without pauses, to feel as many things as possible,” he said, according to Italian media. He declined to elaborate on the precise changes, calling them “small details” and stressing that the process would not yield immediate results. British and Brazilian outlets noted his insistence that no training can fully replicate match tension, but that he felt “well-prepared” after two and a half weeks of intense work in London.

The defending champion’s decision to skip the traditional grass-court warm-up events was framed as a mental reset. “If you play a tournament before here and it doesn’t go well, you arrive with doubts. If you don’t play, you don’t have those doubts,” he said, a logic reported across Indonesian and Malaysian media. Sinner, who lost in the second round at Halle last year before winning Wimbledon, said he was focused on building confidence in his shots and his ability to handle the first-week pressure. He will open play on Centre Court on Monday against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, a match he has known about “for a year,” and which he described as an opportunity to find rhythm.

Away from the court, Sinner refused to be drawn into the escalating player protest over prize money. British outlets detailed how leading players, including Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, plan to limit post-match media commitments to 15 minutes during the first week, a symbolic figure representing the roughly 15 per cent of Wimbledon revenues they say is allocated to prize money. When asked about the action, Sinner acknowledged that the situation was “getting better” but shut down further questions, stating he was at Wimbledon “to talk about tennis.” The All England Club, which raised the total prize fund by 20 per cent to £64.2 million, expressed surprise at the continued protest, while some players, including Alex de Minaur and Alexander Zverev, distanced themselves from the action.

Sinner’s path to a potential fifth major title places him in the same half of the draw as Novak Djokovic, with a projected quarter-final against Daniil Medvedev. The Italian holds a 10-7 head-to-head advantage over the Russian and has won ten of their last eleven meetings. With Carlos Alcaraz absent through injury, Sinner is the clear favourite in London, but his immediate focus remains on the opening day, where temperatures are forecast to be cooler than the record heat that gripped the British capital earlier in the week.