Sinner returns, tennis reels, and a new era stumbles into focus Premium

Jannik Sinner's return to tennis after a doping ban raises questions about his treatment and future performance.

In mid-February, when Jannik Sinner accepted a three-month ban from tennis after entering into a case-resolution agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for two positive tests in March 2024 for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol, many in the tennis world thought that the Italian had gotten away lightly.

After the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) decided in August 2024 that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” and let him off, WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking a one-to-two year ban. WADA agreed that Sinner did not intentionally dope, but it believed that there had to be consequences for the presence of a banned substance in an athlete’s body.

From that position, to then settle for a three-month sentence, wherein the then World No. 1 would not even miss a single Grand Slam tournament, rankled many. Tennis was replete with players having their cases drag on for months before being handed multi-year bans. In such a scenario, Sinner was seen as being treated with kid gloves.

This weekend, Sinner is set to return to action at the Italian Open ATP Masters 1000 in Rome, the last big tune-up before the season’s second Slam French Open. If the 23-year-old was perceived to have had an easy ride with the authorities in the aftermath of his doping violations, his peers have ensured that he will have the softest of landings.

Sinner, whose only tournament this year was the Australian Open which he won, is still the World No. 1 despite a full three-month period where he was not even permitted to watch competitive tennis as an in-stadia spectator let alone pick up the racquet. And quite miraculously, he is set to be the top-seed at Roland-Garros, which begins on May 25.

When the expulsion kicked in, Sinner’s lead over No. 2 Alexander Zverev was 3695 points. In spite of missing four Masters 1000s and a couple of ATP 500s, Sinner is still ahead by 1645 points. Zverev, despite playing eight tournaments in the time Sinner was absent, didn’t win more than two matches at all but one event — Munich 500, where he lifted the trophy.

The gap between Sinner and Zverev did reduce by 2050 points, but that was largely because of the 500 the former chose not to defend in Rotterdam in early February and the 1000 he could not in Miami in late March.