Sinner Ruined His Reputation Forever

Looking back at Sinner's year, some of his results are making more sense. If you remember, Sinner was playing incredible tennis, starting in the Davis Cup last year, and then, of course, he won the Australian Open. He didn’t play at the top of his level in Indian Wells—that’s where he tested positive—but then went on to Miami and maybe played some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen him play. He beat Medvedev 2 & 1 in the semis and Dimitrov 1 and 3 in the final.

2024 Results

Now, of course, haters are going to say he was doped out of his mind, and that’s why he won Miami, but the levels of the banned substance in Sinner's system were so low that his performance couldn’t possibly have improved from it. So it wasn’t just the Miami tournament—Sinner was on absolute fire and the best player in the world up to that point. Then, four days after winning Miami, Sinner was notified that he had tested positive. I cannot imagine what that feels like—his whole world fell apart at that moment. And guess what? He did play well after knowing that he tested positive, but it wasn’t at the same level as at the beginning of the year.

He lost to Tsitsipas in Monte Carlo, pulled out of Madrid, and lost that semi-final match at the French Open to Alcaraz, where I thought that Sinner played well in that tournament but wasn’t at his absolute best level or the level that he was at earlier that year. He then won Hamburg, but I didn’t think he played his best tennis there. He had a lot of tough three-set battles. Then, of course, he wasn’t feeling well in Wimbledon and lost to Medvedev in the quarters. He then lost to Rublev in the quarters of Montreal and won Cincinnati two weeks ago.

Bad Image

So, apart from Cincinnati, where he played well and won the title, knowing that the news about the positive test would come out on Monday, this is super interesting to me. What's happening now is a thousand times worse because he's being destroyed all over social media—whether it's Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, or comments underneath newspaper articles.

Sinner and tennis, in general, are getting a bad reputation now. The big question is, will this go away for Jannik Sinner, or will this stay with him for a while? It's hard to predict. It will fade, but in the immediate future, this is all people will talk about every time Sinner steps on the court. Seeing what Sinner says in his press conference tomorrow will be interesting. I hope this goes away for Sinner because many people who are bashing Sinner simply don’t have the facts right.

So, let's first discuss the ATP or ITF's involvement. People must realize that this entire matter happened outside the jurisdiction of the ATP or ITF. The ATP or ITF is not involved in these matters by design. There's a lot of talk about unfair treatment and the fact that high-profile players get an advantage over other players. Every case is entirely different, and it will have a different outcome.

Drug Accident

Nardi, Sinner's physiotherapist—the guy that massages Sinner and puts tape on his ankles—was grabbing something out of his bag and cut his finger on a scalpel. If this has ever happened to you, you know it takes a while for the finger to heal, and it’s very uncomfortable. So, it is plausible that Nardi was looking for some kind of treatment. Many people, including some former players, are calling what Nardi applied to his finger a cream. It was not a cream.

Just think of the absurdity of Nardi applying a cream to his finger and then massaging Sinner. That is not what happened. Nardi applied a spray to his finger. If you fall on the court, scuff your knee, and start bleeding, you could apply a spray that would, number one, stop the bleeding but also add a protective film over the wound.

In Italy, this type of spray does contain the banned substance Clostebol, and this is what Nardi sprayed himself with. Many people are wondering why Nardi didn’t use gloves, but as you know, massages are carried out without gloves. It’s weird to get a massage with gloves. But of course, it would have made a lot of sense for Nardi to put on gloves after spraying himself with this medicine.

Irresponsibility

The one thing that's weird to me about this whole story is Ferrara, who is Sinner's fitness coach. Believe it or not, Ferrara had this medicine on him for personal use, and Ferrara gave Nardi the spray for his finger. That makes no sense. Why would Ferrara, who is in charge of Jannik Sinner's fitness, be so careless as to give a spray bottle containing a banned substance to Nardi, who will spray it onto his finger and then massage Sinner? That is highly reckless.

Now, to top it all off—and I don't know if this is true—I've seen pictures of this medicine with a huge warning label on the package that says "doping" with a big red circle and a line through it. So, while I believe this entire thing was an accident and Sinner, of course, did not know of any of this, and the fact that the levels were so low and couldn't have possibly enhanced his performance on the court, the story checks out. But it is still weird to me that someone could be so reckless.

Final Thoughts

After Sinner's press conference, we get a break from this story because this is overshadowing the entire US Open. I was so looking forward to the US Open. There are so many great storylines. Will he be on top of his game? I had high hopes for Sinner. I was very impressed with how he played in Cincinnati, but now, with this whole thing going on, I still think he will win this year’s US Open.