Sinner rates doping saga as old news now

Jannik Sinner said on Tuesday he believes the tennis public has moved on from his storm-in-a-teacup doping scandal of earlier this year, with the world No. 1 convinced  the spotlight has died down.

“I think people kind of have forgotten already a little bit what happened,” the Wimbledon top seed said after opening with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 defeat of compatriot Luca Nardi

“Of course, there are still things, new (antidoping) notifications, whatever, coming.”

Sinner quietly served a three-month ban after being found to have been accidentally contaminated by a substance illegal under tennis rules.

It was shown that the contamination came from the hands of a former staff member during a treatment on the player.

The case blew up – and died down – on social media, with Sinner making a return at Roland Garros and reaching an iconic five-set final against Carlos Alcaraz.”That’s the good and the bad of social: something happens and people don’t know anymore what happened,” Sinner said.

“I have a good relationship with more or less all players like I had before.

Of course, in the beginning (of his comeback in late May) it was a bit different.

“People saw me in different ways. But I think they all saw that I’m a very clean player. It was never an intention to do anything bad. 

“I always try to be the best I can, having a good team around me. That’s exactly what I’ll try to do in the future.”

The player added: “The things I can control, I will control, as I always say,
also on the court and off the court. 

“It was an incident, yes. It happened. But the result also says that I haven’t done anything on purpose. It’s all good.