Hello World
Since Jannik Sinner began to assert himself as the best player in the world, there has been a narrative around the 23-year-old Italian and his inimitable mop of red hair. Terrific talent; phenomenal team, with Sinner himself the master of its construction.
Just as he had built it, he would blow it up. On the eve of the fourth Grand Slam of the year, Sinner, the world No. 1, fired half his team. Trainer Umberto Ferrara and physio Giacomo Naldi were out, for buying and using a healing spray at the centre of the biggest story in tennis.
On August 20, tennis anti-doping authorities announced he had twice tested positive for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid, during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. An independent tribunal decided that Sinner “bore no fault or negligence” and would not face a ban. It ruled Ferrara and Naldi were ultimately responsible.
On August 27, Sinner took to the court at the U.S. Open. Early on, he played like someone with on his mind. Against Mackenzie McDonald, a solid but unthreatening opponent, Sinner was a set and a break down and a brief aberration started to look like something more.
Until it didn’t. Sinner picked it up from there, shaking off his early discomfort to win 18 of the next 23 games. He would finish off McDonald 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, in two-and-a-half hours. Next up Thursday is Alex Michelsen, a sometimes tricky American. The Rorschach test of his reputation goes on. Read more below…
GO FURTHER
How Jannik Sinner and the team that made him world No. 1 became a tennis Rorschach test