Jannik Sinner admitted that he still thinks about his doping case, even after winning the 2024 US Open.
The 2024 season has been very significant for the 23-year-old Italian player, and unfortunately for him, because of both positive and negative reasons, which made it very memorable.
He has been the best player on the ATP Tour, winning two majors, two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, and two ATP 500 trophies. On top of that, he also crossed the 10,000-point mark in the ATP Rankings, something only a few legends managed to do before him.
Still, only a few weeks ago, it was revealed that Sinner tested positive for a banned substance, clostebol, but he avoided doping suspension, as his team was able to identify the source of the contamination, because of which the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) allowed him to continue competing.
Some fellow tennis players were not happy about that, but Sinner focused on himself, especially at the 2024 US Open, where he was the top seed and cruised through the draw, mostly unchallenged.
The same applied also to his final match, in which he bested Taylor Fritz in three sets to lift the second major trophy of his tennis career. Naturally, after the win, one of the questions was about his doping case.
The reigning Australian Open and US Open winner admitted that he was happy that the case was already behind him, but at the same time, he revealed that it was still on his mind even when competing at the 2024 US Open.
"I'm happy how I handled this one. I'm just excited to have this trophy with me. It was and it's still a little bit in my mind. It's not that it's gone, but when I'm on court, I try to focus about the game, I try to handle the situation the best possible way."
Sinner stated that people who knew him well immediately noticed that something was not right, judging by little things in how he acted, how he walked onto the court, and many similar moments.
"Obviously it was very difficult for me to enjoy in certain moments. Also how I behaved or how I walked on the court in certain tournaments before, it was not the same as I used to be, so whoever knows me better, they know that something was wrong."
Still, during the US Open, he slowly but surely started forgetting about what happened, and he focused only on his game. it yielded the best possible results as he will be flying back home to Italy with a trophy.
"But during this tournament, slowly I restarted to feel a little bit more how I am as a person. It was not easy, that's for sure, but in the other way I tried to stay focused, which I guess I've done a great job mentally staying there every point I play, and that's it."
It will certainly be difficult for Sinner to completely forget this period of his tennis career, but he will do his best not to let it influence him on the tennis court in the future.
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