Sinner Details the Loss and Confusion He Felt after Accepting Doping Ban

 Tennis - Italian Open - Jannik Sinner Press Conference - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 5, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner gestures during a TV interview after the press conference. (Reuters)
Tennis - Italian Open - Jannik Sinner Press Conference - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 5, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner gestures during a TV interview after the press conference. (Reuters)
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Sinner Details the Loss and Confusion He Felt after Accepting Doping Ban

 Tennis - Italian Open - Jannik Sinner Press Conference - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 5, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner gestures during a TV interview after the press conference. (Reuters)
Tennis - Italian Open - Jannik Sinner Press Conference - Foro Italico, Rome, Italy - May 5, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner gestures during a TV interview after the press conference. (Reuters)

Jannik Sinner has said he was lost and confused after receiving a three-month doping ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency in February.

The top-ranked tennis player suddenly didn’t know what do with himself away from the game he had dedicated almost his entire life to.

“At the start I was a bit confused because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” Sinner said Monday — the day the ban expired — upon his arrival at the Italian Open. “Then I went home and stayed with my family. I tried to understand better what was really important to me.

“I know how many sacrifices I made and my daily routine was always practice, practice, practice,” Sinner added. “But at that moment I didn’t have any of that. I came to understand that what’s important to me are the people by your side. That they give you the strength to move forward and continue smiling.”

Besides his family in the German-speaking Alto Adige region of northern Italy, Sinner also spent more time with friends at home in Monaco, participated in other sports like cycling, and then only gradually came back to tennis.

“We went about a month without touching (a racket) and then we restarted really softly,” Sinner said. “When we started pushing more, blisters developed on my hands. That was something I hadn’t experienced in a long time.”

The settlement was made after WADA appealed a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to fully exonerate Sinner for what it deemed to be an accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid in March 2024.

The settlement raised questions, since it conveniently allows Sinner to return at his home tournament and not miss any Grand Slams.

The Italian Open is the last big clay-court tournament before the French Open — the year’s second Grand Slam — starts on May 25.

“I didn’t want to do it in the beginning, and also it was a bit not easy for me to accept it, because I know what really happened,” Sinner said of the ban. “But sometimes we have to choose the best in a very bad moment, and that’s what we did. So it’s all over now. So I’m happy to play tennis again.”

Many fellow pros feel that Sinner was treated too lightly.

Serena Williams said in a recent interview with Time magazine that she “would have gotten 20 years” if she was involved in a similar case. “Let’s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me,” Williams added.

“I just arrived 45 minutes ago. I haven’t seen so many (other players),” Sinner said. “It’s all fine at the moment, but I haven't seen most of them.”

It will mark the first time that Italy has had a No. 1 player for its home tournament and every move that Sinner makes is attracting attention this week.

Sinner was scheduled to hold an open practice session later on Campo Centrale that is expected to attract a sold-out crowd of 10,500 spectators. It will be broadcast live on Italian TV.

Before the practice session, Sinner was to be honored alongside his Davis Cup teammates and the Billie Jean King Cup players after Italy swept both of tennis’ biggest team titles last year.

Sinner hasn’t played a match since he won his second straight Australian Open title in January. After a first-round bye, he will be play his opening match Friday or Saturday against either No. 99 Mariano Navone or 18-year-old Italian wild card Federico Cinà.

The last Italian man to win the title in Rome was Adriano Panatta in 1976.

“It’s a very, very low expectation tournament in general for me,” Sinner said. “It’s a very strange feeling again in the beginning to be around so many people and attention. But it’s nice to be back.”



Raducanu Back to Her Carefree Best as She Knocks Out Vondrousova

Emma Raducanu. (Getty Images)
Emma Raducanu. (Getty Images)
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Raducanu Back to Her Carefree Best as She Knocks Out Vondrousova

Emma Raducanu. (Getty Images)
Emma Raducanu. (Getty Images)

When Emma Raducanu hurtled across the baseline to whip an eye-popping passing shot winner at Wimbledon on Wednesday, it signaled that she was once again capable of delivering the kind of potent shots that carried her to the 2021 US Open title.

That sizzler, one of 18 winners Raducanu conjured up during her second-round 6-3 6-3 destruction of 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, not only earned the British hope her first break of the match but it also had a hollering Centre Court crowd leaping to their feet.

As fans and pundits hailed her electrifying performance, Raducanu admitted: "That was one of the best matches I've played in a long time.

"There's no better feeling than winning here at Wimbledon, winning on Centre Court. It honestly makes everything worth it. You forget about everything, all the up and downs, mainly the downs, when you're out there and you win. I just want to savor that one and enjoy it (because) it was really special."

Billed as a battle between two one-hit wonders, Raducanu and her Czech rival both had a point to prove when they walked on to Centre Court for the match.

Their career paths have followed a similar roller-coaster of a trajectory -- while Raducanu became the first qualifier in the professional era to win a Grand Slam singles title when she triumphed at Flushing Meadows in 2021, Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon in 2023.

RANKINGS FREEFALL

Twelve months after experiencing the buzz of their incredible victories, both suffered humbling first-round exits when they turned up to defend their Grand Slam titles, with injuries contributing to their downfall.

Cue a rankings freefall, with both plummeting outside the top 150 and, until 10 days ago, neither had won a title since their Grand Slam triumphs.

While both were unseeded, Vondrousova would have fancied her chances of knocking out Britain's big hope.

After all, the 26-year-old had arrived at the All England Club fresh from winning the grasscourt title in Berlin, with victories over Australian Open champion Madison Keys and world number one Aryna Sabalenka en route.

However, it was 22-year-old Raducanu whose game sparkled on Centre Court as she produced the kind of carefree, yet formidable, shots that helped her to triumph at Flushing Meadows almost four years ago.

"Today I played really, really well," summed up world number 40 Raducanu, whose reward for reaching the third round is a showdown with Sabalenka.

"Playing Marketa, I knew it was going to be very challenging. She's won Wimbledon. She's in amazing form right now having won Berlin. I'm just very proud of how I went out there and competed and kept committing and came through that one."

Her commitment to chase after everything, even when she seemed out of the running to win the point, paid off time and time again.

The incredible backhand passing shot winner that she curled back into the court, despite almost running into the crowd, gave her the break for a 4-2 lead in the first set.

Although a sloppy service game gave 73rd-ranked Vondrousova the break back in the next game, the British number one wasted little time in regaining the advantage for a 5-3 lead after a forehand error from the Czech.

Moments later thundering roars from the Centre Court crowd could be heard around the All England Club, and beyond, as Vondrousova surrendered the set with yet another miscued forehand.

Clearly unsettled, the errors started piling up for Vondrousova, who had previously admitted that she did not envy the "crazy pressure" Raducanu had to deal with day-in and day-out after becoming the first British woman to win a major in 44 years.

Yet another forehand slapped long by Vondrousova handed Raducanu a break for 2-1 and from then on there was no stopping the Briton. She sealed a place in the third round after her opponent swiped a backhand wide.

"She was playing amazing tennis. She was crushing me in the rallies, so there wasn't much I could do," said Vondrousova.