Clare Balding and BBC stars gobsmacked by Sinner
The BBC Wimbledon panel were left stunned by Jannik Sinner's potential rule breach on Centre Court, after the world No. 1 and defending champion came through a tricky first round. Sinner beat Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6 6-3 6-7 6-2 6-3 and overcame some difficult physical hurdles.
Having suffered a major upset at the French Open, unable to deal with the heat, cooler temperatures in SW19 were not at fault this time. Instead, Sinner bled profusely from his foot, so much so that it seeped through his shoe and caused his white shoes to be coloured by a crimson red.
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Afterwards, Sinner said on-court that he feared being hauled off by tournament chiefs for being in breach of Wimbledon's all-white dress code.
However, they did not feel the need to act, and the BBC panel were also surprised that no action was taken.
“This was another unexpected element, the blood on Sinner’s right foot from early on," Tim Henman said as he analysed the match. "I’ll be interested to see what he’s got to say about that.”
Two-time semi-finalist Tracy Austin then replied: “And I don’t think red is allowed like that out there! It’s not an all-white shoe!”
Henman jokingly replied: “Tough fine for breaking the rules.”
Host Balding then chimed in and noted that the possible breach was brought up in the previous interview: “Lee McKenzie said that to him in the interview: ‘you’re nearly contravening the rules’.”
New BBC pundit Eugenie Bouchard, making her first appearance on the broadcast, explained further: “It’s a little more than 10 per cent [fine], we do have to realise that’s a lot of blood to go through a shoe like that."
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Sinner admitted that he considered the prospect of being hauled off during the match once tournament officials spotted the red on his shoe.
"I'm actually very surprised they let me keep playing because, you know, all-white, it turned into a little red," he said in his on-court interview. "No, no, it just you know a nail. I didn't want to also disturb Miomir, I think we both had you know a good rhythm. It was a great match from both of us, so I didn't want to take any time. It's all good, thank you.
"Coming back here as defending champion means a lot to me, even though every year is different, every year can be very tough. So first of all, very happy to win the first one. Of course, we will try to plan a couple of improvements for the next match, but I can be very, very happy."
Sinner also suffered a horror fall in the early stages, but he was able to recover to avoid what would have been an almighty upset in the first round.