Jannik Sinner revealed that his ongoing doping case clarified to him which people are truly his friends and also opened up about how difficult life was when the news about the case broke.
Sinner's season on the court has been outstanding. He won his maiden Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and the US Open, as well as obtaining Masters-1000 titles at the Miami Open, Cincinnati Open, and Shanghai Masters.
Those achievements have allowed him to build a massive lead in the ATP rankings, and he is already guaranteed to end 2024 at No. 1 after his superb performances throughout the season.
Unfortunately for Sinner, the news of him twice testing positive for the banned substance clostebol during the Indian Wells Open has taken much of the focus away from his efforts on the court.
After a five-month private investigation, the case was made public a few days before the US Open. Sinner was cleared by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after it found he bore no fault or negligence for the clostebol accidentally entering his system.
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed the decision, arguing the Italian bears more fault than the ITIA found. WADA believes that a suspension of between one and two years would be appropriate.
The result of WADA's appeal is expected to be announced in the early months of 2025. That means Sinner has to manage the undoubted anxiety he experiences about the case until a decision is reached.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Sinner admitted that preparing for the US Open after the news was difficult and that such a significant story about him breaking before a Grand Slam made life challenging.
"The real difficult moment in my opinion was when the news came out. And it came out in a very delicate phase because it came before a Grand Slam. I asked myself a lot of questions, it was difficult to prepare for a Grand Slam like that."
The Italian revealed that the attention on him when the case was made public meant he could not initially train in preparation for the US Open, making his subsequent run to the title at Flushing Meadows even more impressive.
"I had already wanted to train since Wednesday, the news came out on Tuesday and we decided it was better not to. We went on Thursday, in the evening, because so many people would have left. We got there and we had all the rooms on us, it was very hard. I looked at the other players to understand what they really thought."
Sinner also said the stressful ordeal made him realize some people he did not think of as friends actually were, while others he did consider friends were not there to support him when he needed them.
"I am convinced that nothing happens by chance , and perhaps this chance was precisely to understand who is your friend and who is not. And I separated these two matters."
"I understood that there are many players who I didn't think were my friends, and there is a fairly large number who I thought were friends and instead they are not. And in the end I don't say that this did me any good, but it made me understand a lot of things."