Jannik Sinner’s superb 2024 concluded with an impressive Davis Cup defence as he again led Italy, this time over an overachieving Netherlands side in Sunday’s final. Yet the 23-year-old admitted the off-court unknown surrounding doping accusations and his future has been heartbreaking as he awaits WADA’s appeal over being exonerated after two positive drugs tests for clostebol in March.
Sinner: Consistency down to trust from those who know me
Jannik Sinner’s 2024 season
Most finals (9) and titles (8) – Australian Open, US Open, two Masters 1000 events
ATP tour’s prize money ($19.7m) and ranking points (11,830) leader
Earned world number one status in June, finished year as top-ranked player
73-5 in singles play, three of those defeats were against world no. 2 Carlos Alcaraz
First since Roger Federer (2005) to complete a full season without straight-sets loss
JANNIK Sinner’s scintillating year across all surfaces has been a joy to watch unfold, though the Italian has managed to maintain that consistency while a serious underlying doping issue had been quietly playing out behind-the-scenes for five months – and worsened once made public on the eve of this year’s US Open.
He didn’t hide, fielding questions when media moderators and PR spokespeople would prefer him not to, accompanied by multiple character references to suggest the whole debacle is sadly an unfortunate issue at the worst time: coinciding with his ascent to world number one and a rising worldwide star. And yet, he conceded:
“Of course it’s in the head a little bit. The most important part is all the people who are around me, who know me as a human being trust me — that’s also why I kept playing the level I have. I was emotionally a bit down, a bit heartbroken. Sometimes life gives you difficulties and you just have to [deal with] it.”
WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after the ITIA originally accepted his claim, explaining miniscule quantities of clostebol found in his system were due to contamination by a member of his staff – demanding a one-to-two year-long suspension and there’s no timeline on an expected verdict.
After Italy’s Davis Cup triumph, Dutch captain Paul Haarhuis said the doping case against the Italian star was impossible to analyse from the outside.
“What’s my feeling? Jannik is an unbelievable nice guy, great player, but we never know what happened.”
His teammate and 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini enjoyed a resurgent 2024 after troublesome injuries in recent seasons, playing a considerable part in victory with five singles wins over Italy and Belgium among others. Yet he said Sinner’s ascent was something they as a team sensed coming a year earlier.
“It’s a special experience [to watch Sinner]… last year when we were here, we looked in each other’s eyes, saying that this guy is something else, something different. We’d never seen someone hitting the ball so hard, so flat, since then he’s lost six matches and as you can see – most humble guy on the planet.”
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes via AP
Mo and Sports 