Emotional Jannik Sinner reveals how ATP colleagues broke his expectations during 3-month doping ban

Jannik Sinner made an emotional revelation about how some of his ATP colleagues have maintained their distance with the tennis star amid difficult times. He will be making a comeback to the sport at the Italian Open this year, after serving a three-month-long doping ban for testing positive for clostebol twice, in March 2024.

Maintaning his rank at the top of the table, Sinner is entering the tournament as the top seed and will face Mariano Navone or Federico Cina in his first match, after receiving a first-round bye. However, the ban has impacted him emotionally as he candidly spoke on some players not keeping in touch with him while he was away.

In a recent interaction with the media in Rome, the 23-year-old shared how some players such as Jack Draper and Lorenzo Sonego have stayed in touch with him, but some who he believed to be close chose to remain distant.

"I haven't spoken to almost anyone. I've spoken to Draper, we're great friends and he came to train with me,then with Sonego. At the beginning of the suspension I received some surprising messages from certain players, while from others from whom I perhaps expected something, nothing arrived,” he said.

However, he didn't want to name-drop anyone as he is aware that it is a competition and everyone is trying their best to reach the top.

“But in the end it's normal, everyone wants to win, there was no video call with any player. But everything will be fine. I don't want to name names regardless," he added.

Draper, who is a close acquaintance of Jannik Sinner, advocated for him earlier this month on the hate he was receiving.

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Jack Draper backs Jannik Sinner ahead of Italian's tennis return

Jack Draper and Jannik Sinner at the 2024 US Open - Source: Getty

Jack Draper, during a joint interview with the BBC and The Guardian in April, made it known that the hate Jannik Sinner was receiving during and post his doping ban was unnecessary. The Brit has been a close friend of the Italian and didn't hesitate to share that Sinner is a genuine and nice person.

He said that people were quick to make judgments on people they do not know fully and condemned the conversations that were going on around his return.

"I think it’s important for people to know and recognise that the guy’s very, very kind-hearted and a good human being. So he doesn’t deserve any of the hate that he gets," he said.

The duo was seen training together, gearing up for the clay season at Beaulieu's Tennis Club in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France.