Jannik Sinner Admits He Considered 'Giving Up' Because Of Doping Case Struggles
NewsTuesday, 29 April 2025 at 22:33
Jannik Sinner might be the World No. 1 and a three-time Grand Slam champion, but there was a period when he had all sorts of thoughts, as he recently admitted.
The past 12 months of Jannik Sinner's tennis career have been brutal. The Italian player tested positive for a banned substance at the Indian Wells Open last year, and after his case was made public later in the year, the 23-year-old seemed to be in a never-ending circle of answering questions about his doping case and facing criticism from fellow players.
The criticism itself wasn't direct at the Italian that much, but mostly on the processes in place by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which found him to bear no responsibility for having a positive doping test.
Sinner's case became even more complicated when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed that ruling, asking for a suspension for the three-time Grand Slam winner. Eventually, he accepted a three-month ban after reaching an agreement with WADA.
Now, at a time when his three-month suspension is coming to an end, Sinner started talking about his feelings during the case more. In a most recent interview, Sinner sat down with the TG1 director, Gian Marco Chiocci, and explained that there was a moment when he considered "giving up."
"There was a moment when I felt like saying, 'Enough, I'm giving up everything.' Before the Australian Open, it wasn't a very happy moment. There was still that doping case, and I said to myself, let's see how it goes this year."
Sinner admitted that at the Australian Open, which he ended up winning, he felt that fellow players saw him differently than before because of his ongoing doping case.
"In Australia, I didn't feel comfortable in the locker room. When I ate, I felt that the other players looked at me differently, and I said to myself that it was hard to live in tennis like this. There it was different."
"I said to myself maybe after Australia a bit of free time will do me good, then it went the way it went but in that moment it did me good, three months is a long time, but I didn't play Rotterdam also for that reason: I needed different time, with friends and giving priority to the people I love."
During the interview, Sinner was also asked about his achievements and which ones he felt like the most significant. The Italian player singled out becoming the World No. 1.
"From a personal point of view, when I learned that I would become number one, it was an incredible feeling because it was the result of a whole year. Another crazy moment as an Italian is when you enter the Central Stadium in Rome or Turin, it doesn't feel like you're on a tennis court, but in a football stadium. A feeling that's difficult to describe."
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