BOLZANO. The triumph at the Australian Open and the conquest of the world tennis throne are the two peaks of Jannik Sinner’s extraordinary 2024 so far. A year that has also reserved some bitter surprises for him – beyond the long-secret affair of the positive doping test for which he was cleared – in a swing between exhilaration and worry that has put his character balance to the test.
Physical problems forced him to sudden stops and painful renunciations, first of all those at the Internationals and the Olympics. Pain in his hip, due to an inflammation, slowed him down on the field several times and forced him to take some breaks, then a virus arrived that at the end of July caused him a “tonsillitis” so serious that it forced him not to leave for Paris.
Now it has also been learned that since March, after having won his second tournament of the season, in Rotterdam in February, the South Tyrolean has lived with the nightmare of a suspension, and above all a possible disqualification, for doping, having tested positive for two tests in Indian Wells, where he went out in the semifinals against Alcaraz.
At the next tournament, in Miami, he instead obtained his third victory of the season, rising to No. 2 in the world ranking. Problems began to arise upon his return to Europe, on the red clay of Madrid, during which he was forced to withdraw and then give up the Rome International. A long stop that led him to show up in good shape at Roland Garros, where he played the semifinal as the new No. 1 in the world, thanks to Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal, but lost to Carlos Alcaraz. His fourth seasonal success smiled on him in June in Halle, a tournament on grass in preparation for Wimbledon, where he went out in the quarterfinals. Lurking was the virus that stopped him for a long time, while the story of the unwitting contamination with a steroid that emerged in Indian Wells unraveled under the radar, a further source of stress.
Only after mid-August did the case have a happy ending, but after a long journey of analysis, possible suspensions, appeals, investigations and interrogations. The affair could have also had repercussions on his mental and physical conditions, already under pressure from the virus, when deciding whether to take part in the Olympics. “Now I will leave this difficult and deeply unfortunate period behind me – Sinner commented today -. I will continue to do everything possible to ensure that I continue to respect the Itia anti-doping program, having a team around me that is meticulous in compliance” with the rules.
A member of the team, who had treated a wound on his hand with an over-the-counter spray containing the banned substance, “unknowingly” caused the contamination during the treatments and massages the player was undergoing during the days of Indian Wells. A common and necessary practice for a high-level athlete, especially if he is as ‘fragile’ as Sinner, who has never had any particular muscular problems. Already at the end of last season, which saw him explode between the victory of the Davis Cup and the final at the ATP Finals in Turin, the South Tyrolean had repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen his physique, so much so that, not without raising controversy, he had decided not to answer the call to Davis in September to “recover my strength – he explained – after the tournaments in the USA”. And in fact at the Open he had come out exhausted from the match lost to Zverev, complaining of cramps.
Even in Montreal, after returning from tonsillitis, he suffered pain during the match with Andrey Rublev. “If I want to win the most important matches, I have to be in better shape” he said after the semifinal in Cincinnati with Alex Zverev, more demanding than the final act, victorious, with Frances Tiafoe. The US Open will be tough, and demanding, but now that his fear for the doping case seems to have faded, his mind may also be stronger.
2024-08-20 18:31:14