‘Players looked at me differently’ in Australian Open locker room, wanted ‘break’ from tennis – Firstpost

World number one men’s tennis player Jannik Sinner will be making his return from a three-month doping ban in Rome on 4 May. However, there was a time the Italian felt he should walk away from the sport. Those thoughts came to Sinner’s mind when he defended his Australian Open crown earlier this year.

Sinner
accepted a three-month ban in February after a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency, who had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against an independent tribunal’s decision in August to clear him.

The Italian had tested positive for anabolic agent clostebol which Sinner said entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

Sinner: ‘Didn’t feel comfortable in locker room’

Sinner won the Australian Open in January, with the WADA case hanging over him, and was asked during an interview with Italian broadcaster RAI on Tuesday whether he had ever considered giving up tennis.

“Yes, yes. I remember before the Australian Open this year, I was not in a very happy moment because there was still that case of doping,” Sinner said.

“I didn’t feel really 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. And there I said it’s heavy to live tennis in this way.

“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.”

Sinner was then forced into a break by the ban, but is now back in training for the upcoming Italian Open next month.

“Slowly, I’m getting back into the rhythm of real training with a goal in front of me,” Sinner said.

“Sometimes it goes very well, sometimes there is a drop and I don’t know why, so I will certainly be very happy to return to the court.

“Especially in Rome, it is a special tournament for me, but I certainly enter with a slightly different mentality. I miss the competition. I am certainly very happy that this phase is now over and we are ready to start again.”

Sinner: ‘It was very difficult’

Sinner’s settlement brought plenty of criticism from both current and former players, with Serena Williams saying she would have been
banned for 20 years and had her Grand Slam titles taken away had she tested positive in a similar fashion.

“I mean, I don’t even want to answer. Everyone is free to say what they want, everyone can judge, but that’s okay,” Sinner said.

“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.

“I don’t wish it on anyone to really pass as innocent something like that because it wasn’t easy, but we are in a world where everyone can say what they want, so it’s okay.”

With agency inputs