Jannik Sinner’S Australian Open Title And The Uncertainty Around His Doping Case Appeal

MELBOURNE, Australia — There’s an alternate universe in which Jannik Sinner’s brilliance has no qualification.

He was clinical in dispatching Alexander Zverev in straight sets Sunday, displaying outrageous athleticism and shotmaking throughout his 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 win in the Australian Open final. He won his second Australian Open title, a second straight Grand Slam title and his third major overall. The win evolves his compelling rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, who he trails 4-3 when it comes to Grand Slam titles and who appears to be his only close rival at the top of the ATP Tour.

That’s not the universe in which this all took place. Only on April 16 and 17, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) convenes its behind-closed-doors hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland to rule on world anti-doping authorities’ appeal into Sinner’s doping case, will there be any clarity at the top of men’s tennis.

That hearing will begin nearly 11 months after Sinner’s opponent settled a domestic abuse case brought by his ex-partner and the mother of his child, Brenda Patea, out of court. “The decision is not a verdict and it is not a decision about guilt or innocence,” a Tiergarten District Court spokesperson told The Athletic when the settlement was confirmed in June 2024. Zverev denied the allegations.

When Zverev took the microphone to begin his on-court interview Sunday, a spectator appeared to shout “Australia believes Olya and Brenda! Australia believes Olya and Brenda!” in apparent reference to Patea and Olya Sharypova.

Sharypova, a Russian former tennis player, said that Zverev repeatedly abused her in 2019. She never involved the criminal justice system and the ATP decided to take no further action in January 2023 following a 15-month independent investigation that included extensive interviews with Zverev, Sharypova and 24 others.

Zverev has always denied any wrongdoing.

“I believe there are no more accusations. There haven’t been for, what, nine months now,” he said in his news conference after the final.

“Good for her. I think she was the only one in the stadium who believed anything in that moment. If that’s the case, good for her,” he said.

“I think I’ve done everything I can, and I’m not about to open that subject again.”

The incident with Zverev after the final only adds to the feeling of provisionality that surrounded the match before it began. Sinner once again displayed his hard-court brilliance and big-match temperament, but what it means for tennis will not be decided on the court.

Shortly before the U.S. Open, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that Sinner, the men’s world No. 1, had twice tested positive for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid, in March of that year.

It also announced that an independent hearing, convened by the ITIA, had found Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” for those positive tests, accepting his explanation that he had been contaminated by a healing spray purchased by his physio, Umberto Ferrara, after his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, used it on a cut on his hand before giving Sinner a massage. Sinner did not receive a ban, and he appealed successfully against the two provisional suspensions imposed for the two tests.

Sinner parted company with Ferrara and Naldi, part of the team that took him to world No. 1, on the eve of the U.S. Open, which Sinner won. In a sombre news conference after beating Taylor Fritz in the final, it was clear that September afternoon that the uncertainty of the previous few months was weighing heavily on Sinner.

A couple of weeks later, the world anti-doping agency (WADA) lodged an appeal against the ITIA’s “no fault or negligence” verdict that could lead to a ban of up to two years for Sinner, even though WADA is not challenging the ITIA’s independent hearing having found that Sinner did not intentionally use a banned substance.

Even if it’s only a few months, Sinner would miss this year’s French Open and Wimbledon and could arrive at the U.S. Open seriously undercooked. It’s possible that Sunday’s win against Zverev was the last the world will see of Sinner at the majors this year.