After three months of a much discussed suspension for doping, the world N.1 Jannik Sinner, hero of Italian Sport, returns to competition at the Masters 1000 in Rome, last major meeting on clay, from Tuesday, before Roland-Garros (May 26-9 June).
It is an understatement to say that Sinner is expected by a whole country in Foro Italico: his first official training, Monday in the evening, will be competed in the central in front of 10,000 fans and will be broadcast live on Sky Sport.
The Italian, whose last racket dates back to January 26 in the Australian Open final which he won for the second consecutive year, shares the impatience of his compatriots.
“I miss the competition, training, it’s not the same thing, I’m very happy that this period is finally over. I can start from the front”he told the Rai last week.
If he could not dream better than a home tournament for his return, Sinner, 23, is not always comfortable on clay and/or when playing “A Casa”.
Of the 19 titles of his record, only one was won over on Earth (Umag 2022) and he had to wait for the last Masters ATP, in November in Turin, to finally triumph before the Italian public.
“A difficult and stressful year”
Package on injury just a year ago, its best result in Rome, a quarter -final lost against Stefanos Tsitsipas, dates back to 2022.
Before his explosion, before he became the undisputed master of world tennis by winning the last season eight titles, including the Australian Open, the US Open and the Masters ATP.
But 2024 will also remain by its own admission “a difficult and stressful year”, marked by its positive anti -doping control on the sidelines of the Masters 1000 of Indian Wells: a resounding case which he hopes to have solved by accepting in February a suspension of three months, but which continues to divide the world of tennis.
If the accidental contamination of an anabolic, via a massage provided by a member of his entourage, has never been called into question, the agreement reached with the world anti -doping agency which initially aimed at two years of suspension, made its teeth cringe.
-“I was a little criticized that I would have been treated differently, but it is not true. No one has preferential treatment”he defended himself.
His rivals did not really take advantage of his absence: his runner -up in the ATP Alexander Zverev ranking still accuses almost 2000 points late.
The sensation drape
The German, winner in Rome in 2024, still does not seem to have digested his defeat in the Australian Open final.
He has certainly just won the Munich tournament, but did not exceed the knockout stages of the three Masters 1000, the most important tournaments after the Grands Celems.
Carlos Alcaraz did better than Zverev, winning in Monte-Carlo, but the Spaniard downgraded in the 3rd row and, wounded, had to ignore Madrid.
As for Novak Djokovic, after his pitiful eliminations from his entrances to Monte-Carlo and Madrid, he did not even make the trip to Rome where he won six times.
So much so that Sinner, despite his forced break, could very well come back as he left, by winner, and become the first Italian to win the Italian internationals since Adriano Panatta in 1976.
Unless the Briton Jack Draper continues on his impressive launched: fortieth in the ATP ranking a year ago, he jumped in the 5th row in the world by winning in Indian Wells and reaching the final in Madrid where he ended up giving in on Sunday evening against the Norwegian Casper Ruud.
In the shadows for several months of the world N.1 Aryna Sabalenka who has just won Madrid, the Polish Iga Swiatek hopes to revive thanks to a tournament that she has won three times and of which she is the title holder.
