Top-ranked Jannik Sinner expressed cautious optimism about his upcoming Wimbledon title defense following an exhibition match held amid a heat wave in London on Wednesday. The Italian player secured a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cam Norrie in challenging conditions, marking one of his few competitive appearances ahead of the grass-court Grand Slam, which begins Monday.

Sinner has not competed in any tour-level events leading up to Wimbledon. His performance at the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic in west London was met with temperatures reaching 33 degrees Celsius and a slight breeze, under a “red warning” for extreme heat issued by the UK’s national weather service. Despite the oppressive weather, Sinner reported feeling physically well. “It was very warm, but physically I felt good,” he said in post-match remarks.

The exhibition came less than a month after Sinner’s unexpected second-round exit at the French Open, where he suffered a physical meltdown characterized by dizziness and heat-related distress. During that match against Juan Manuel Cerundolo at Roland Garros, temperatures climbed to 32 degrees Celsius. Sinner had led by two sets and 5-1 in the third set before ultimately losing in five sets. The Italian later revealed that medical testing was conducted to understand the incident. “We did some testing. We tried to understand what happened. We came to a conclusion which is very good,” he said.

Sinner also addressed his preparations for the grass-court major, noting the benefits of exhibition matches in trying out different strategies, although he declined to specify what he was experimenting with. At practice earlier Wednesday, he wore a cooling vest, a precautionary measure against the heat. Unlike during the French Open, Sinner did not use ice packs during the match with Norrie.

Conditions during the match contrasted with those expected at Wimbledon for Monday’s opening rounds, where temperatures are forecast to be around 24 degrees Celsius. Last year, Sinner captured his first Wimbledon title after defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the final. Alcaraz will be absent from this year’s tournament due to a wrist injury.

The UK’s weather service warned of a prolonged extreme heat period, with maximum temperatures potentially rising to between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, combined with high humidity and warm nights that could affect recovery and health.

In response to the heat alert, the All England Club took several measures to safeguard players and staff during Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament. Ball boys and ball girls were replaced by adult staff, and a temporary power outage affected part of the Roehampton qualifying venue. The electronic line-calling system was disabled during this interruption, with heat considered a possible factor in the outage.