Rome – Rome (AP) – Jannik Sinner He was equally surprised by which the fellow players sent him messages of support at the beginning of his three -month doping ban Like those who did not send anything.
The best classified player will return to tennis at the Italian Open this week after his settlement with the world anti -doping agency questions raisedsince it conveniently allowed Sinner not to miss Grand Slams and returned to the tournament of his house.
“At the beginning of the suspension I received some amazing messages from some players, while there were others who would have expected to know about that,” Sinner said. “But I’m not going to name names.”
The agreement was made after Wada appealed a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to completely exonerate the sinner for what considered as accidental pollution by a prohibited anabolic steroid in March 2024.
Many professionals feel that Sinner was treated too lightly and Sinner recently discussed how he did not feel really comfortable in the locker room and the players during his career to a second direct title of the Australian Open in January, noting that “the players looked at me differently.”
Coach Simone Vagnozzi said that he and Darren Cahill, another Sinner coach, also felt the looks.
“When something like that happens, I think it is almost inevitable that everyone looks at you. But some beautiful things have also been said,” said Vagnozzi, highlighting the comments he appreciated from Holger Rune’s mother, Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev.
In the last month of its prohibition, Sinner practiced with Jack Draper, Lorenzo Sonago and Rune in his training base in Monaco.
At the beginning of his suspension, Sinner was forbidden to enter any sanctioned sporting event.
“I wanted to support my friends in cycling or motoring,” Sinner said. “I couldn’t go there. That for me was the most difficult part.”
In March, the professional cyclist Giulio Ciccone published A photo on Instagram Of himself posing during a bicycle excursion with the resistance conductors of Sinner and Ferrari Alberto Giovinazzi and Alessandro Lost Guidi.
Cahill has announced that he will retire at the end of the year and asked Vagnozzi if he would then consider training Sinner on his own.
“I could do it on my own,” said Vagnozzi. “But with players of this level, it is important to have another point of view. And sometimes it is important to divide the weeks you spend with the player. Otherwise, it is a 365 -day/year job and that is a bit too much.
“But I hope Darren remains in another five years, because we have such a good relationship. He could be the best coach in terms of results and other factors.”
Vagnozzi referred to how Sinner is the fourth player that the Australian has trained to number 1 after Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and Simona Halep. “But above all, he is a special person.”
Sinner will play his first game on Saturday against No. 99 Mariano Navone, who beat the 18-year-old Italian wildcard Federico Cinà 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday. Sinner enters a 21 -games winning streak, but has not played an official game since January.
In addition, red clay in the Italic forum is not the best surface of the SINNER. Only one of his 19 career titles has reached the Earth, in Umag, Croatia, in 2022.
“It is definitely the surface where the least safe one is,” said Vagnozzi. “But last year he had a good clay season, he arrived at the semifinals in Monte Carlo and the France Open and the quarterfinals in Madrid … so I think it can also do it well here.”
The last Italian man to win the title of Rome was Adriano Panatta in 1976.
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