"If this was Novak Djokovic, he would be in cuffs" - Fans up in arms over Jannik Sinner's medical time-out during Wimbledon loss to Daniil Medvedev

Jannik Sinner taking a medical timeout mid-set during his quarterfinal against Daniil Medvedev at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships has sparked reactions from tennis fans. The Italian took a timeout of over ten minutes in the third set.

Sinner was seeded first at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He kicked off his journey with a win against Yannick Hanfmann. He then ousted the 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in a hard-fought four-setter and followed it up with a comfortable straight-set win over Miomir Kecmanovic. The Italian defeated Ben Shelton to reach the last eight.

On Tuesday the 22-year-old was pitted against fifth seed Daniil Medvedev, whom he had faced 11 times in his career. Sinner won a very tight opening set in a tiebreaker but Medvedev turned things around, taking the second and the third. Sinner then sent the match into a deciding set, where the fifth seed prevailed to win the thrilling encounter (7)6-7, 6-4, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3.

During the third set, Jannik Sinner took a medical timeout after being broken by Medvedev at 1-2. The timeout lasted over 10 minutes.

Fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to react to Sinner's long timeout. One fan said that if Novak Djokovic had done the same he would've been lambasted by the tennis fraternity.

“If this was Novak taking a medical after opponent turned the match around he would be in cuffs already."

Another fan shared the aforementioned fan's sentiments.

“if this was novak there would already be at least 100 comments.”

Here are some other reactions from fans, many of whom lambasted the Italian for his prolonged break.

“Won the first set looking perfectly fine and now has begun feeling unwell. Same with carlos in rg,” a fan mentioned.

“He's just like his gf lmao always running away at the first sign of adversity,” a fan said.

“Never loses like a man. Hate that from sinner. That’s why he will never have a top 1 mentality,” a fan opined.

“If this was Novak, Lord knows. This bias tennis community man,” another fan mentioned.

"One moment I could feel Jannik Sinner didn't move that well" - Daniil Medvedev sheds light on his approach while playing the unwell Italian

Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev shake hands after their match (image source: GETTY)

During his on-court interview, Daniil Medvedev was asked how he maintained his level after knowing of Jannik Sinner's condition. The World No. 5 agreed that it was "tough" as he wanted to play more points to make things harder for the Italian, but meant no harm.

Medvedev said:

“It’s actually very tough. One moment I could feel he didn’t move that well. It’s always tricky because you wanna play more points to make him suffer a bit more in a good way.”

He added that Sinner came out all guns blazing after the timeout, and mentioned that he didn't want to be in such a situation. Regardless, he was happy with his result.

“At the same time you know that he at one point is gonna say ‘ok I can’t run anymore. So I’m gonna go full power.’ And that’s what he did. He had set points to win the 3rd set. In a way I’d maybe prefer to not have this situation. Everything is well when it ends well. So I’m pretty happy.”

Daniil Medvedev will face Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals whereas Jannik Sinner will now kick off his preparations for the upcoming Paris Olympics.