The year of Jannik Sinner, a machine between glory and suspicion

Although there has been an equitable distribution of the great pie, two majors for him and two others for Carlos Alcaraz, the course that is closing definitively highlights one name: that of Jannik Sinner, protagonist at the beginning of the course in Australia, then in the middle of summer – when the double positive that had been detected five months ago was revealed , during the course of the Indian Wells tournament, in March—and now in the epilogue of a radical year for the number one, who poses victoriously with the masters trophy (6-4 double against Taylor Fritz) and rounds off a magnificent work —more titles (8) and triumphs (70) than any other— that contrasts with the shadow of doping that has not yet dissipated. Pending resolution, after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed the initial verdict and requested up to two years of punishment, he raises his arms in triumph. He also lowers them and waits.

Heaven and hell for Sinner, from top to bottom and bottom to top, waiting to know his destiny and surrounded by success and also by anguish, given that the decision can fall at any moment and that, despite claiming to be very Don’t worry, that he did nothing illegal and that the process so far has proven him right, therein lies the threat. Sooner or later the balance will fall to one side or the other. “Now I know who my friends really are,” repeats the one from San Candido, “a macchina″, is compared to Turin, which in the year of its explosion has adopted a single path, invariable dynamics from beginning to end: win, win and win. It started like a shot in Melbourne, that first parade was premonitory, and from there it hasn’t stopped: Rotterdam, Miami, Halle, Cincinnati, US Open, Shanghai and now this Masters Cup in which it has not admitted a response to anyone. Neither did Fritz. The American, like so many others who have suffered from it, suffers again from the exercise of the roller.

He completes the Sinner route without giving up a single section, unblemished, in the overwhelming line of this season in which only Alcaraz has managed to be familiar with him. The rest, flies that he has been brushing off, with that tennis of aggressiveness and control, with a frenetic pace that reminds us of the freshness of Novak Djokovic, when the Serbian devoured the others in the heat of the exchanges. But today the one who crushes and rules is him, 23 years old, the redhead from the mountains who took over number one in June and who continues to make progress, distancing himself from everyone – 3,915 points above Alexander Zverev and 4,820 from the Murcian – and consolidating as the man to beat, as the most regular, as a guarantee. A real watch. Where he did not win the trophy, he came very close: a final, three semi-finals and three quarter-finals rounded off his service record.

However, there is the trace of clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that stained his blood and still torments him, no matter how much he trusts in justice. It reached the veins, he defends, because his former physio, fired shortly after, did not use gloves for a massage and had suffered a cut that, the tennis player alleges, caused the contamination.

22 million euros

“I had a moment of total darkness. I didn’t know what to say. The words didn’t come out of my mouth. I was totally petrified. I was afraid of everything and all people. It was difficult and it still is. “I looked around and wondered what people really thought of me,” he admits. “I know that I have not done anything wrong, that I have always respected the rules. And I’m calm. I have already had three hearings and all three turned out in my favor, so I am going to collaborate and work, and we will see what comes out. But I am very positive. Obviously, I don’t like being in this position,” he laments, while Italy stirs and celebrates the unstoppable rise of its first teacher, of its last divine sports, which blows up audiences and between extreme and extreme, glory and suspicion, has been cashing in like no one else and has made its way through banknotes and more banknotes.

Specifically, his merits on the courts and the parade a month ago in Riyadh – accompanied by Nadal, Alcaraz, Djokovic and Sinner, among others – have earned him 22 million euros. “I don’t play for money,” he says. “Of course it is important, but not that important,” he continued after winning the exhibition with the same authority with which he governs today, five months already at the top, as resounding here as there. He began to set the pace in Australia, where he struck down Djokovic and Medvedev, and was able to overcome the circumstances and also take victory in New York; As a seasoning, he is getting stronger in the Masters 1000 and establishing himself as the boss on the hard court, in addition to being the first to reach 70 victories since Andy Murray scored 78 in 2016.

“I still think I have room for improvement,” he says. “There are still certain shots and points where I can progress; They are details, but the closer you get to the highest level, the more important those details are. More makes a difference. I’m not looking to be the first in anything, because in the end they are just statistics, but I always try to improve and understand what I can do better,” he continues in the conference room. “My goal right now is to assimilate everything I have won this season and next season I will face it the same, staying calm. All you have to do is be yourself and understand what works and what doesn’t. Tennis is unpredictable, so you never know what can happen, but everything will be fine if mentally everything is in its place,” he closes.

It is the law imposed by Jannik Sinner, the last tornado. The main actor of this 2024. A king between two antagonistic realities.