Jannik Sinner receives hero’s welcome, VIP treatment in drug ban return at Italian Open
Italian world No.1 will return to court in Rome after his three-month suspension for doping offences – but his ban from the game has felt more like a refresher than a punishment.
Tennis
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By no means will Jannik Sinner be making an understated comeback to tennis this week.
In stark contrast to others who have returned from drug bans in the past, the red carpet will very much be rolled out on home soil for what is shaping up to be a hero’s welcome at the Italian Open in Rome.
This goes beyond the adoration Italy’s greatest tennis player will receive from thousands of fans at the Foro Italico.
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Even the organisers are doing all they can to ease him back into action from a three-month suspension, creating a private suite away from the general player area for Sinner, his coaching team and his family. Extra security will also be offered for his movements around the grounds to ensure that he is kept safe amid a feverish atmosphere.
“We will create a Fort Apache for him because we believe he should be protected and should relax and prepare for his matches using as little energy as possible,” Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis Federation, said.
It must be clarified at this point that Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing for his two positive drug tests last year. An independent panel concluded that small traces of the anabolic steroid clostebol were caused by contamination from a barehanded massage by his physio, who had previously treated a cut on his own hand with an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol as an ingredient.
Despite reaching a settlement with Sinner in February for a three-month ban, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) also accepted the explanation while also pointing out that he did bear some responsibility for the negligence of his entourage.
Many will understandably question the full VIP treatment in Rome for someone who has fallen foul of anti-doping rules. It is hardly much of a deterrent to those tempted by prohibited substances that a banned athlete is being given significant privileges in his first tournament back.
Nor will it go down well with the players who have complained over the past nine months that the handling of Sinner’s case by authorities has appeared a little too convenient. As a result, there was undoubtedly some frostiness in the locker room towards the world No 1 in recent months. Before his run to a third grand-slam title at the Australian Open in January, it affected him so much that he pondered quitting.
“When I arrived in Australia in January, I was uncomfortable, also because it seemed to me that the other players looked at me differently,” Sinner recently told the Italian broadcaster RAI. “For a moment, I even thought about giving up everything.
“I didn’t really feel comfortable in the locker room, where I ate. I felt like being in tennis, with that atmosphere, was too much. I was always someone who joked about, who went in the dressing room speaking with whoever, but it became different. I wasn’t at ease.
“I didn’t feel comfortable and then I said, maybe after Australia, a little bit of free time, in the sense where I take a little break, it will do me good.”
Results over the summer will determine whether Sinner has benefited from his enforced period on the sidelines, but it is already clear that his three months out has been treated as more of a reinvigorating career break than a punishment. Photographs on social media, and stories circulating from others on the ATP Tour, paint the picture of a 23-year-old who has embraced life in recent months rather than feeling down in the dumps at home.
This is by design.
Sinner was on site in Doha in February preparing for the Qatar Open when an agreement was reached with WADA for a settlement of three months rather than the two years, which had initially been sought in a filed appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Suddenly banned from his profession, Sinner sat down with his coaching team for a late-night meeting that mapped out how he would fill his time away from the court.
“From the day we learnt of the stoppage, the player, team, and management have had the same thought in unison: to make the most of this period,” Marco Panichi, Sinner’s fitness trainer, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
“We knew right away that we could do a good job, studied and planned, not diluted and broken up by travel and tournaments as usual. It’s not that we were happy with Jannik’s suspension, that’s clear, but we studied an active and proactive way of getting through it.”
This was immediately evident in February. Within days of being banned, Sinner was pictured reliving his youth on the snowy slopes near his home town of Sexten. As a former national junior competitor there were no problems adjusting his footwork.
Attempts to improve his golf swing were also made at a local course in the province of South Tyrol, having previously struggled in November when an amusing clip showed him hitting a drive, only for the ball to dribble about six inches to his right off the tee.
Fellow Italian sports stars and friends were also tapped up for activities, such as karting with the former Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi and cycling with the professional rider Giulio Ciccone.
While others in his position may prefer to keep their heads down, Sinner embraced the cameras by attending a fashion show in Milan.
Reports in the Italian media suggested that the Russian model Lara Leito was his new girlfriend after his relationship with the Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya ended, though Sinner insists that he is not in a relationship at present.
Banned from official tennis training venues, either affiliated to tournaments or national federations, until April 12, Sinner focused until then on improving his strength and conditioning.
In recent weeks, Sinner has spent most of his time on the clay courts of the Monte-Carlo Country Club, which handily became available when the ATP Masters came to an end on April 13. With an apartment in the principality, he has been sighted commuting through the narrow streets on a Vespa scooter with a racket bag on his back.
By all accounts, it has not taken long for Sinner to shake off the rust in his tennis. Jack Draper, the British No 1, was invited for a three-day training camp as a close friend of the same age – Sinner is understood to be grateful for Draper’s repeated public backing of his character – and left deeply impressed with the level of play after a lack of competitive matches. “He’s obviously had a bit of time off, but he’s playing at an incredible level still,” Draper said.
To put the icing on the “welcome back” cake in Rome, Sinner returns still at the summit of men’s tennis after the dismal failure of Alexander Zverev, the world No 2, to take advantage of his absence. It all adds to the sense that there has barely been a punishment served for one of tennis’s biggest drugs controversies.
“In these three months, Jannik has taken some time off for himself,” Panichi said. “He has rediscovered himself. Detoxification is under way. I’m very happy. On a mental level, he’s transformed. He will return to Rome with enormous motivation and important freshness.”
This story first appeared in the Times and has been republished with permission.
Originally published as Jannik Sinner receives hero’s welcome, VIP treatment in drug ban return at Italian Open
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