Jannik’s ‘sin’ might come back to haunt him — and spoil world tennis’ new fable

Jannik Sinner of Italy between points with Taylor Fritz of the US during the men’s final at the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, on 8 September.Photo: Justin Lane/EPA-EFE

By Craig Ray

7 Oct 2024

World No 1 tennis player Jannik Sinner could face a lengthy suspension for doping despite initially being cleared.

As the era of the “big three” in tennis unofficially ended in 2024 with neither Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer winning one of tennis’s four singles Grand Slam titles, the baton was passed to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.

Spaniard Alcaraz and Italian Sinner won all four Grand Slams between them in 2024. Alcaraz claimed the French Open and Wimbledon, and Sinner bookended the majors with wins at the Australian and US opens.

Tennis fans barely had time to contemplate the end of the greatest era of men’s tennis before a new era was ushered in with the speed of a scorching Sinner forehand down the line.

Alcaraz and Sinner have met 10 times, with the Spaniard leading the head-to-head 6-4. They’ve driven each other to a higher level, which their three-hour and 21-minute epic in the China Open final in Beijing on 2 October underlined.

It was a match of staggeringly high quality which Alcaraz won 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

The kings are dead, long live the kings. But now, one of the kings the sport tried so hard to protect may be heading for exile.

Rocked the sport

A positive doping test returned by Sinner, from a sample taken in March, has rocked the foundations of the sport.

Tennis’s seemingly favourable treatment of Sinner through the tribunal process, as a top player and vital part of the sport’s narrative, has invited more scrutiny.

And that scrutiny has come in the form of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which is appealing the outcome of the decision of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to clear Sinner.

It’s worth recalling where this started.

In March, Sinner was tested as a routine procedure while playing at Indian Wells. His first positive sample was taken on 10 March and was found to contain traces of the banned anabolic agent clostebol. A second sample was taken eight days later and had the same adverse finding.

The ITIA, which was established by tennis’s various governing bodies, including the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), as it is mandated to do, set up a tribunal to hear Sinner’s case and provide the athlete with a chance to clear his name.

As is the norm, a provisional suspension should have been applied with each positive test, but unusually, Sinner was allowed to keep playing after his legal team filed urgent appeals.

During hearings, the existence of which was not made public until months later, while Sinner continued to play and win, the ITIA took most of the sporting world by surprise when it issued a statement clearing Sinner of any wrongdoing.

The ITIA accepted Sinner’s defence that the illegal substance entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

Besides the barely plausible story of how the substance (and to be clear, they were minuscule traces) entered his system, most of tennis, but also the wider sporting world, were more interested in the hushed-up process. The integrity of the ITIA’s handling of the case is under fire.

Inconsistency

The first that most people outside of a tight inner group of tennis’s hierarchy knew about the Sinner case was when the ITIA delivered its verdict in August.

That led to a howl of protest from many players still active in the sport, calling it a double standard because there were several documented cases of other, lesser-ranked players who endured provisional suspensions and who had to fight for months and years to clear their names.

“Whether Sinner was doping or not, this is not right,” British player Liam Broady wrote in a social media post. “Plenty of players go through the same thing and have to wait months or years for their innocence to be declared. Not a good look.”

Even the great Federer and Djokovic had their say.

“It’s not something we want to see in our sport. This type of news, regardless of whether he did something or not… It’s just noise that we don’t want,” Federer said in an interview with NBC’s Today show on 3 September.

Sinner Jannik Sinner between points against Taylor Fritz during the US Open final in Flushing Meadows, New York, on 8 September 2024. (Photo: Justin Lane / EPA-EFE)

“I understand the frustration about having been treated the same as others, and I think this is where it comes down to,” he said.

“I think we all trust pretty much that Jannik didn’t do anything, but the inconsistency potentially that he’d have to sit out while they were not 100% sure about what was going on, I think that’s the question here that needs to be answered.”

Wada also wanted the same questions answered. Late in September, it appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against an independent tribunal’s decision in August to clear Sinner of wrongdoing.

Wada said the tribunal’s finding of “no fault or negligence” on the Italian’s part was incorrect under the applicable rules, and it would seek “a period of ineligibility of between one and two years” against Sinner.

Djokovic was typically eloquent and forthright when asked about Wada’s decision to appeal the outcome.

“I think it’s… obvious that we have a system that is not working well,” Djokovic said before the Shanghai Masters on 2 October. “So, I guess that’s probably something that even the people who are not following our sport are realising.

“There are way too many inconsistencies, way too many governing bodies involved and this whole case is not helping our sport at all,” he said.

Read more: Players allege double standards after world number one Sinner escapes doping ban

Sinner seemed confident despite Wada’s move when he addressed reporters in Beijing in late September.

“We cannot control everything, no? Obviously I’m very disappointed and also surprised by this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings. All three hearings came out very positively for me,” Sinner said.

“We always talk about the same thing. Maybe they just want to make sure that everything is in the right position. Yeah, I’m just surprised that they appealed.”

Need a narrative

For tennis’s rulers, the administrators in the ATP ivory tower, the rise of Alcaraz and Sinner couldn’t have come at a better time.

Djokovic is the last realistic contender of the big three, but even age is cutting him down. For a sport that drools and fawns over its stars in ways that most sports do not, it poses potential problems for the ATP.

Stars put bums on seats and rivalries drive up TV and sponsorship revenue. Professional tennis needs a narrative and in Alcaraz and Sinner, tennis has a new storyline.

The feisty, passionate Alcaraz, who makes it seem like his life’s ambition is to never let a ball played anywhere in his general vicinity go unchased, is one of the new fable’s heroes.

Read more: Tennis doping: Public relations volley will not save Sharapova

Read more: Halep wins in battle to reduce doping ban, cleared to play immediately

The other hero, ready-made for tennis’s need for a storyline that can be sold, is the ice-cool Sinner. He has all the shots, is super fit, and is a player who works out the geometry of a court like a racquet-wielding tennis Einstein.

With a few other characters on the fringes, such as Taylor Fritz, Djokovic still fighting against time and the new kings, as well as Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, the story looks set to continue indefinitely.

But it might need a new hero soon, if Wada has its way with Sinner. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Sport

Rocked the sport

Inconsistency

Need a narrative