Reaction to Sinner Scandal Reverberates Beyond Ashe

By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty

NEW YORK—Jannik Sinner carries a lot more than a custom Gucci bag with him on court these days.

World No. 1 Sinner shouldered crowd concerns as he walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium for his US Open opener.

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How would notoriously vocal New York fans respond to Sinner in his first match since the ITIA announced he twice tested positive for the banned steroid clostebol last March? Sinner was not suspended because a tribunal found he bore “no fault” for the trace amounts of clostebol in his system.

Fans were positive and supportive as Sinner rallied from a slow start to stop American Mackenzie McDonald 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 on Ashe Stadium.

Afterward, Sinner said the response was pleasantly surprising.

“I’m curious to see how the reaction of the fans has been, but it has been very positive,” Sinner told the media. “I was very glad how the support was, also playing against an American, no, it’s a little bit different.

“So I’m happy how I handled those situation, it was not easy. So I think a lot of positive things from today’s day, and so let’s keep seeing what’s coming in the next round.”

Criticism has come from some players ranging from Nick Kyrgios to Denis Shapovalov.

Asked his reaction to Sinner’s case, Daniil Medvedev, who fell in five sets to the Italian in the Australian Open final last January, said “I think what he did wasn’t within the rules. It’s just the rules are a little bit vague.”

“I think my perspective is a little bit – I think I saw Taylor [Fritz], and I really like what he said. He said, Look, it’s only him who knows what happened exactly, so we cannot know,” Medvedev said. “Nobody can know like the exact truth except him, his team, and maybe the guys who, like, the independent tribunal.

“I hope this situation can be the same for every player, like every player can defend himself, because I think what he did wasn’t within the rules. It’s just the rules are a little bit vague, et cetera.”

The Cincinnati champion said there has been response from his peers in the locker room as well. Sinner said he accepts that his case—and its adjudication—will elicit marked response from fellow players.

“Yeah, there are some reaction. You know, I cannot really control what they think and what they talk,” Sinner said. “You know, that’s how everything went and how it was, I already talk, no?

“I cannot control the players’ reaction, and if I have something to say to someone, I go there privately, because I’m this kind of person. But, look, overall, it has been not bad. So I’m happy about that.”

Olympic gold-medal champion Novak Djokovic said Sinner’s case—and response to how it was handled—should be a teaching tool for the game’s governing bodies to standardize the process.

Djokovic said Sinner’s case spotlights the fact “there has to be a change and I think that’s obvious” while raising the question: Can superstars afford a different level of “justice” when it comes to doping cases?

“Hopefully the governing bodies of our sport will be able to learn from this case and have a better approach for the future. I think collectively there has to be a change, and I think that’s obvious,” Djokovic said. “Many players—without naming any of them—I’m sure you know already who these players are, have had similar or same, pretty much the same cases, where they haven’t had the same outcome, and now the question is whether it is a case of the funds, whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount of money for a law firm that would then more efficiently represent his or her case.

“I don’t know. Is that a case or not? That’s something really I feel like we have to collectively investigate more, to look into the system and understand how these cases don’t happen, meaning not the case itself, but how we can standardize everything so that every player, regardless of his ranking or status or profile, is able to get the same kind of treatment.”