JANNIK SINNER IS A U.S. OPEN CHAMPION — AND SOME OF US WONDER WHY
He tested positive twice for anabolic steroids, yet a probe gave him a pass, allowing him to thrash through a New York tournament and win a second Grand Slam title in what should be a memorable career
So a Sinner is a champion. Why? How? We’ve seen athletes tormented for life after positive steroids tests, but when a 23-year-old from Italy mushed through eight figures in a news conference before a “1” appeared in his dirty amount — .000000001 — it was enough for the International Tennis Integrity Agency to end an investigation.
This was how Jannik Sinner won a U.S. Open title without much outcry, which must baffle decades of sports juicers.
Never mind if a destructive word was found in a red circle, with capital letters on the $16 can of an over-the-counter spray. “DOPING,” it said, which screeched the term Trofodermin to a purchasing Associated Press reporter. Sinner’s physiotherapist moved forward with his sample and applied it “erroneously” during a massage, which included enough of the banned substance Clostebol to show up in a probe. When a trainer used it to treat his own cut finger, he didn’t use gloves while working on Sinner’s foot, which led to two positive outcomes.
Does any of it sound legitimate? Or just another scheme that allowed Sinner to burst through a tournament for his second Grand Slam victory of the season? Carlos Alcaraz was burned out from too much play. Novak Djokovic finally looks too old at 37. Taylor Fritz was an American in the final Sunday, which meant he’d inevitably lose based on two decades of national rot.
Thus Sinner won in three sets, becoming the first known steroids thief to thrive in a title run. Could he win without the Clostebol? Sure, considering an all-time forehand that makes onlookers leap when he hits the ball. But the junk clearly was in his system — and he was allowed an absurd pass, making us wonder if tennis will ignore future calamity if it involves a superstar player.
“This title, for me, means so much, because the last period of my career was really not easy,” said Sinner, who has dealt with internal scrutiny since the Indian Wells tournament in early March. “It was, and it’s still, a little bit in my mind. It’s not that it’s gone, but when I’m on court, I try to focus (on) the game. I try to handle the situation the best possible way. I tried to stay focused, which I guess I’ve done a great job, mentally staying there every point I play.”
The shame is how the debacle won’t leave our minds. Sinner is trying to match Alcaraz’s four majors, and they should spend this decade and the next one in total warfare. The Big Three that has carried men’s tennis in the 21st century — Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer — never were busted for steroids. Alcaraz is clean so far. Suddenly, a kid with skinny arms and a thin, 6-foot-4 body is doping up? He maneuvered through New York, a mean crowd that taunted baseball’s Fernando Tatis Jr. after he served an 80-game suspension for Clostebol.
“Not bad,” Sinner said of the fans at Flushing Meadows.
And fellow players, including those who have been suspended for drugs? “I cannot really control what they think and what they (say),” he said. “That's how everything went and how it was. 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.”
Not since 1977, in the name of Guillermo Vilas, has a player won his first two majors in the same year. Sinner is 55-5 with six titles in 2024, with dominance on hard courts that Alcaraz will find damning. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were on the scene, and neither did anything but watch.
“Nice to see new champions. Nice to see new rivalries,” Sinner said. “So many big wins for me this season. But the work never stops.”
Soon enough, the tennis bosses will test him again. “You can understand why people are upset about it. In anti-doping, it sounds so ridiculous,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, told the Associated Press.
Sinner stood with the trophy. “It was very difficult for me to enjoy in certain moments. Also how I behaved or how I walked on the court in certain tournaments before ... was not the same as I used to be,” he said. “So whoever knows me better, they know that something was wrong. But during this tournament, slowly, I re-started to feel a little bit more how I am as a person.”
If he is smart, after firing his trainers, Jannik Sinner will view his body as a temple. This break gives him a chance to break through in history. Does he deserve it?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.