The Italian Jannik Sinner, 23 years old and world No. 1, he experiences the ATP Finals party at home for the third year in a row, in Turin. Finalist in 2023, intends to take another step and become a ‘master’ in front of his fans. He is an idol in his country, having won the Davis Cup, which he plans to defend in the Malaga Finals, Australian Open and US Open. He is the leader of the season, no one can steal his top spot in the ranking.
Although his best season so far coincided with his worst nightmare, he thought he was forgotten but was saved by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)who took his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausne, once the Tennis Integrity Agency thought the Italian did not deserve any suspension or punishment.
All for double positive, for clostebol, during the Masters 1000 ATP Indian Wells, in March, which she always attributed to external contamination resulting from a massage from her former physiotherapist.
The offender still risks being suspended for between one and two years. A threat that did not stop his sports career, although he lost three direct confrontations with his great rival, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, champion of Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
The Italian recounted in detail how he knew he was in trouble. “In Monte Carlo (his official residence) and Alex Vittur (His manager and friend) called me and said: ‘Jannik, you are positive.’ I said, ‘Yes, Alex, I’m always positive.’ And he said: “No, Jannik, you are positive for doping,” he explained in an interview with Esquire UK magazine.
“I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through,” he stressed. He had a picture of “a moment of total darkness. “I was trying to understand how it could have happened, I didn’t do anything.”
He assures that “nothing came out of my mouth. I didn’t want to believe, I felt lost.”
And it influenced the complicated experience of reaching the locker room when the matter became public knowledge, as it was kept secret until there was a decision from the ITIA, the Tennis Integrity Agency.
“It was hard then. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it, even though those who knew me and saw me play realized that something was wrong. At Wimbledon I turned white on the court, I was scared. In Cincinnati I went to the club and asked myself, ‘How will the other players look at me? What will they think of me?’ That’s when I really understood who my friends were,” he concluded.
Source: La Verdad
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