Jannik Sinner has been suspended from tennis for three months on the heels of a positive doping test in 2024. The ban ends on Monday, which means Sinner can participate in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia–the third of three clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments that begins on Wednesday in Rome, Italy.
Sinner has been sidelined since winning the Australian Open in January, giving him back-to-back Grand Slam titles (also the 2024 U.S. Open).
“I remember before the Australian Open this year, I was not in a very happy moment because there was still that case of doping,” the Italian said in a recent interview with the media outlet RAI in his home country. “I didn’t really feel comfortable in the locker room, where I ate. It was a bit like some players looked at me differently and I didn’t like it at all.
“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.”
Of course, it’s not like Sinner was happy about being shelved for three months, during which he missed Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, and Madrid.
“I had a tough time accepting these three months because I knew that I didn’t do anything wrong,” the world No. 1 added. “So why do I have to pay this price? But then we discussed it with my lawyer and about what could have happened in the worst-case scenario and so we decided to accept it. Everyone is free to say what they want, everyone can judge, but that’s okay. It’s important to me that I know how that happened, but above all also of what I went through and it was very difficult.”
Sinner had no trouble holding on to the top ranking during his absence, so he will be the No. 1 seed in Rome ahead of Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.