"I thought about quitting everything": Back from doping suspension, Jannik Sinner denies having received "special treatment"

He had spoken very little until now. He has remained virtually silent with the media since his victory at the Australian Open earlier this year. Soon to return to competition at the Masters 1000 in Rome starting May 4th, after a controversial three-month suspension for doping with clostebol, Jannik Sinner came out of the woodwork by agreeing to an interview with Rai. Broadcast on the evening of Tuesday, April 29th, the interview mainly focused on the affair and his emotional handling of the past few weeks.

"I don't want to respond or react (to the critics) , they are free to say what they want and judge people. For me, what matters is that I know what happened, it was difficult and I wouldn't wish anyone to go from being innocent to living what I lived through," assured the triple Grand Slam winner .

Jannik Sinner tested positive for clostebol in March 2024, and attributed the presence of a very small amount of this anabolic in his samples to accidental contamination, via a massage given by his physiotherapist at the time, Giacomo Naldi - the latter is no longer on Sinner's team. He was initially cleared by the Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia), the body responsible for managing doping cases in tennis, a decision that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) challenged before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and requested a one- to two-year suspension. In early February, Sinner and WADA finally reached a "settlement agreement" for a three-month suspension that will end on May 4. This agreement has been criticized by several players, both active and retired, and beyond the tennis world.

"I've been criticized a bit about being treated differently, but that's not true. Nobody gets special treatment," the Italian defended himself to Rai. "There have been so many hearings (with anti-doping authorities) , I've been tested maybe more than the others," continued Sinner, who is due to make his comeback at the Masters 1000 in Rome (May 7-18).

"In my eyes, when there is contamination like what happened to me, or if you absorb something while eating without realizing it as can happen and the doctors say that it does not give you more strength or lucidity, it is another matter, there is a whole protocol," Sinner developed while evoking his case. An episode that he still cannot digest: "I really had a hard time accepting these three months of suspension, because in my mind, I did nothing wrong," noted the 23-year-old player.

Still at the top of world tennis despite this forced absence, Sinner looked back on his 2024 season played under the threat of a long suspension, which did not prevent him from winning eight titles, including two Majors - the Australian Open, the US Open - as well as the prestigious ATP Masters, the level just below a Grand Slam tournament. "I did not feel like a player should feel on the court, we train to enjoy ourselves by playing big matches and this pleasure disappeared day after day" , admitted the player, nevertheless speaking for the first time of a certain malaise.

During "those twelve months of difficulties," he said he hit rock bottom in January at the Australian Open, feeling the urge to "give it all up." "I wasn't comfortable in the locker rooms, in the tournament restaurant, the other players looked at me differently ," the returning player said. "I didn't like it at all, I told myself that living tennis like that was weighing on me a lot." But will the atmosphere in the canteen and in the corridors of tournaments have really changed since February? The only certainty is that his comeback and his performances on the Roman courts will be scrutinized very closely, less than a month before Roland-Garros.