Jannik Sinner’s latest achievement may be his best yet – but are his triumphs tarnished?
Jannik Sinner has been the player of the year on the ATP Tour and he confirmed as much by wrapping up the year-end world No 1 ranking with his run to the Shanghai Master Finals.
Sinner’s 6-4, 7-5 win over Tomas Machac confirmed that he will finish 2024 as the first Italian to top the world rankings.
Czech Machac was looking to follow on from his victory over world number two Carlos Alcaraz and had got off to a positive start when he broke Sinner in the opening game of their semi-final.
However, the 23-year-old Italian, winner of both the Australian Open and US Open this year, soon broke back to level at 2-2 before closing out the set.
The second set proved a closer affair, staying on serve until Sinner broke Machac in the 12th game to clinch victory – his 64th match win of the season – in one hour and 45 minutes, becoming the first Italian to claim the year-end number-one spot in the process.
“It is something you dream of when you are a kid, when you are young, just to reach the number one, now having the year-end, it is also a different and special feeling,” Sinner said, quoted on the ATP Tour website.
“It means so much to me, obviously. This is something I could not accomplish without all the people I have around – the family and friends and also a big credit to my team.”
Sinner, chasing a seventh title of 2024, will face Novak Djokovic in the final after the Serbian beat seventh seed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6(6) and he will head into that match as favourite as Djokovic was clearly struggling with a hip problem in the second set.
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Beating Djokovic would offer further proof that we have moved on from the greatest era in the men’s game and into a new phase that could be dominated by Sinner and his great rival Carlos Alcaraz.
Yet amid Sinner’s rise, the cloud that has been placed above him is the other dominant story of 2024, with his failed drug tests set to be a dominant plotline heading into the New Year.
Sinner said he was “very disappointed and also surprised” to be facing the renewed threat of a ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency launched an appeal against a ruling of “no fault or negligence” for two positive tests he returned in March.
Sinner twice tested positive for an anabolic steroid in March but on August 20 an independent tribunal determined he was not to blame and imposed no punishment.
The tribunal accepted Sinner’s explanation that the banned substance entered his body as a result of a massage from his physio, who had used a spray containing the steroid to treat a cut on their finger, but WADA has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, seeking to impose a ban of up to two years on the 23-year-old Italian.
The popular Sinner has received plenty of support from the tennis community since news of his doping story broke, with fellow players and ex-pros suggesting the levels of the illegal substance found in his system suggest he was not taking performance-enhancing drugs deliberately.
Yet take a glance at social media platforms and every Sinner story is greeted with responses referencing his failed drug tests and most are negative.
Djokovic fans don’t need an invite to question a rival to their hero and they have been especially vocal in highlighting Sinner’s doping case, with questions at press conferences certain to follow the Italian until the WADA appeal is heard.
Sinner is an immaculate tennis player and the levels he is showing with this cloud of suspicion still hanging over him is hugely impressive, but any athlete that fails a drug test has questions to answer and that may always be the case for this world No 1.
Suspicion is a charge that is hard to disprove and those who are keen to question how Sinner has enjoyed such a huge improvement in his form over the past 12 months will never entirely believe his progress has been pure.
