Jannik Sinner’s rebranding underway with latest announcement ahead of comeback
The Jannik Sinner relaunch is officially underway and not just on the court.
The world No 1 has been a notable absentee from the ATP Tour since he accepted a three-month suspension in a deal with the World Anti-Doping Agency following his two failed doping tests in March 2024.
The fall-out from Sinner’s drug ban will rumble on long after he returns to the game at the Rome Masters next week, with many players questioning how his suspension was handled and fearful that they could be one mistake away from being caught up an anti-doping crisis of their own.
Sinner will return to tennis with his position as the best player in the men’s game undisputed, with Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic failing to capitalise on the absence of the player who won the Australian Open in January by making a challenge to his world No 1 status.
Yet how will tennis fans and his fellow players react to Sinner’s return?
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It is a question the 23-year-old may be asking himself, after he made these candid comments in an interview with Italian broadcaster TG1.
“I remember before the Australian Open this year, I was in a not so happy moment,” said Sinner, reflecting on the first Grand Slam of 2025.
“In Australia, I didn’t feel at ease in the locker room or at the restaurant, the players looked at me differently and I didn’t like it at all. There I thought that living tennis in that way was really hard: I’ve always been someone who took tennis jokingly, I thought about taking some time off after Australia.
“The way I felt on the court is not the way a player should feel. We work hard to have fun during a match, but that fun, day after day, had disappeared. I was thinking about something else.
“Then it went the way it went, I didn’t want it to go that way but in the other sense at that moment it did me good. Three months is too much, but one reason why I didn’t play in Rotterdam was precisely that. I needed some different time, with friends, giving priority to the people who love me.
“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.”
Despite his negativity, Sinner won the Australian Open and then accepted the three-month suspension amid concerns that he would be banned for longer if he didn’t take the deal that was on the table.
Now the tennis world is holding its breath ahead of Sinner’s comeback at the Rome Masters and the timing on an announcement that he has launched a new foundation to empower children is clearly part of his relaunch.
Images of a smiling Sinner appeared on the ATP website as the new Jannik Sinner Foundation was unveiled, with the positive messaging from the launch clearly designed to give the player a positive news story ahead of his comeback.
“Today is a very, very special day. I’m happy to share that we are launching the Jannik Sinner Foundation,” Sinner said in a video announcing the news. “The idea behind [this] is very simple: I want to give back. Kids are our future and everything we do in the foundation is rooted to help them.
“We are focussing on two main areas: sports development and childhood education. “It has always been something [that] I looked up to, trying to help, especially kids, because for me kids are our future.
“Hopefully I can give them some small ways and paths where they can feel comfortable with and hopefully they achieve their dreams. With this foundation, we would like to give younger kids a great chance to hopefully to achieve their dreams.
“For me, it’s an honour to support children and young athletes. Sports have taught me invaluable lessons: discipline, resilience and the courage to stay true to myself. Lessons that I believe are worth sharing. Through our work, we want to show kids what’s possible, not just in sports but in life.”
Sinner’s interview with TG1 was presented to a sympathetic audience in Italy, but the big question over how tennis fans react to him will only come when he is back on court.
The tennis community that have spent time to study the Sinner story may be willing to accept he was the victim of an unfortunate turn of events that led to his positive doping result.
Meanwhile, the harsh truth may be that those outside of tennis who know Sinner as much as the guy who failed a drug test as the dominant player in the men’s game may always view him in a less positive light.
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