Sinner: "In Australia, I didn't feel comfortable in the locker room, the players looked at me differently and I didn't like that at all"

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A Jannik Sinner has only a few days left to feel like a professional tennis player again. Specifically, on the fourth of May, the three-month suspension imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and agreed with the player himself, for his double positive for clostebol in March of last year, will end. The Italian has taken advantage of his imminent return at the Rome Masters 1000 to give an interview to RAI1, the Italian public television. In it, he has stated that despite continuing to win, he was not enjoying himself on or off the court. This is everything the world number one has shared on Italian TV, as reported by Ubitennis.

Ready to return

"I'm quite well, last year was very stressful, but still we managed to achieve incredible results. This year also started well, then things happened as they did. At first, it was a bit strange, even off the court unexpected things happened that I didn't expect, but little by little, I am getting back into the real training rhythm, training with strong players like Sonego to see how I am. Sometimes it goes very well, sometimes there's a drop in my level, and I don't know why. I'm looking forward to being back on the court. I miss the adrenaline of competition; I'm glad this phase is over."

His reaction to finding out he tested positive

"I didn't know anything, but we quickly found out where those milligrams came from. But accepting these three months was tough for me; in my mind, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. Then, with my lawyer, we decided to keep going this way, experiencing this difficulty throughout a whole year. We always looked at the results, but on the court during this period, I didn't feel like a player should feel. I wasn't enjoying it anymore, I was thinking about other things."

Struggled despite his victories

"The luck I had was that the people around me helped me a lot and believed in me, they supported me a lot during those moments. I'm talking about my team, my family. I built my own bubble where no one else could enter; that gave me the will to continue and return, and prepare well for the Grand Slams, where last year I played very well. Everything went well, even though I didn't feel like a happy person on the court."

Defends that his protocol was the same as everyone else's

"Everyone when testing positive has the same protocols. There's no different treatment, although in my case, I received some criticism, but I wasn't treated differently. I had to make many appeals; perhaps I was reviewed even more than others. Everything was reviewed again by WADA. In the case of contamination like mine, if doctors check and understand that it doesn't give you more strength or lucidity."

Away from criticism

"Everyone is free to judge and say what they want, but for me, it's important to know what happened and what I went through. It was very tough, I wouldn't wish for anyone to go through being seen as innocent for something like that. But we're in a world where everyone can say what they want, so it's alright."

Was very close to stopping

"I remember that before this year's Australian Open, I was very unhappy. In Australia, I didn't feel comfortable in the locker room or the restaurant; the players looked at me differently, and I didn't like that at all. I thought that experiencing tennis in that way was very burdensome; I've always been someone who took tennis lightly, so I thought about taking a break after Australia."

"Then things unfolded as they did, I didn't want it to be like that, but in another sense, at that moment, it was good for me there. Three months is too long, but one of the reasons I didn't play in Rotterdam was precisely that. I needed a different time, with friends, prioritizing the people who care about me," confesses a Sinner who, after a year full of turbulence, is ready to come back strong.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Sinner: "En Australia no me sentí cómodo en el vestuario, los jugadores me miraban de forma diferente y eso no me gustaba nada"