‘Sinnermania’ persists in Italy despite doping controversy

After the best season of his career, Jannik Sinner has risen to an almost godlike status enjoyed by only a handful of transcendent Italian sports champions:

Skier Alberto Tomba, motorcyclist Valentino Rossi and footballer Roberto Baggio.

Sinner is only 23 years old. But as the only player from the country to ever be named the best tennis player in the world, he has already joined the pantheon.

The frenzy of attention on the boy from San Candido as he arrived at the ATP Finals in Turin – flashing photographers and shouting autograph hunters held at bay by burly security men – showed he is a man in demand.

And the well-documented doping case that is still ongoing does not appear to have reduced that demand, if newspaper columns and crowd support at his matches here are to be believed.

“This is a whole new dimension,” veteran Italian tennis journalist Ubaldo Scanagatta told BBC Sport.

“I have been attending Grand Slam tournaments since 1974, and I have only witnessed something similar for a tennis player once – in 1976 when Adriano Panatta won the French Open after beating Bjorn Borg in the quarter-finals.”

It was ‘Sinnermania’ in Turin.

All 183,000 tickets that went on sale for the ATP Finals – 30,000 more than in 2023 – were sold days before the start of the event.

On the secondary market, registration for the group stage matches was 600 euros (£500). For the final – where everyone hopes to see their red-haired hero, nicknamed the ‘Orange Fox’ – they’re going for 1,500 euros (£1,250).

His arrival at a medical center, where he underwent some fitness tests before the tournament, reminded many of what happened six years ago in the Juventus sports clinic when Cristiano Ronaldo signed: mass hysteria and boundless enthusiasm.

His tennis skills and off-court personality – calmness and an understated humor – have made him a national darling and attracted major Italian brands to vie for his endorsement.

“Jannik represents a new way to be number one in tennis, someone who is very close to the people,” said Diego Nargiso, former world number 67 and now master of ceremonies at the ATP Finals, the season-ending tournament for the top eight Gentlemen. singles and doubles teams.

“He is so simple and down to earth. That’s why the people – and the sponsors – love him.”

One of his main characteristics is mental strength.

This has not only allowed him to take his game to the next level when it counts most, but has also helped him emerge from the toughest period of his career.

Italy continues to support Sinner

In March, Sinner tested positive twice for small amounts – less than a billionth of a gram – of clostebol.

Clostebol is an anabolic steroid that, when taken in large quantities, can lead to performance improvements. It is also used to treat skin wounds.

Sinner’s team argued that he had been accidentally infected by his physiotherapist, who had applied a healing spray to treat a cut on his own hand and then administered treatments to the player.

In August, an independent panel from the International Tennis Integrity Agency ruled that Sinner had “no fault or negligence” for the positive tests.

However, as Sinner hoped to go further, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Wada believes he must take responsibility and demands a ban of one to two years.

The support Sinner has enjoyed in Turin this week is an indication of how many people in Italy are watching the case and the doping allegations.

“Jannik, Italy supports you,” wrote Gazzetta dello Sport, one of the country’s leading newspapers, on the day of his opening match.

After Sinner defeated Taylor Fritz in his second ATP Finals match on Tuesday, the 14,000 fans at the Inalpi Arena – punctuated by fluorescent orange shirts, wigs and carrot costumes – started chanting his name so loudly that he had to stop congratulating his rival to suppress them. .

The chance that the mood among his fans will change, even if Cas decides against Sinner and issues a suspension, seems small.

Another clostebol controversy in Italy

Sinner’s case bears similarities to that involving former Atalanta footballer Jose Luis Palomino, who tested positive for clostebol twice in 2022 and was later cleared of wrongdoing.

“Clostebol is contained in both Veterabol, a veterinary drug to which Palomino was exposed, and in Trofodermin, the drug to which Sinner was exposed,” said Alberto Salomone, professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Turin and Palomino’s scientific advisor during his case.

“Both are used for their proven healing power.

“During my career I assisted about twenty athletes in similar situations; they all had three things in common: they were Italian or lived in Italy, the low concentration of the substance, the presence in their environment of someone who had used Trofodermin.”

Sinner tested positive twice with similarly small concentrations of clostebol over a week.

Trofodermin is only available without a prescription in Italy and some countries in Central America, Salomone says.

According to Italian law, Trofodermin packaging must have a visible symbol indicating the presence of a substance included in the Wada list of prohibited substances.

Despite the warnings, several Italian athletes – in tennis, football and athletics – have still tested positive for clostebol in recent years.

After noting the number of cases, anti-doping laboratory scientists in Rome published a study in 2020.

It contains several experiments; the most significant of which involved the application of Trofodermin to the hands of one participant, who then – 30 minutes later – shook hands with the other seven.

“Five of those tested positive for clostebol,” Salomone noted.

“The scientific evidence is there and the ITIA judgment has confirmed it.”

Some remain skeptical of Sinner’s case, including some of his ATP colleagues.

It will be up to Cas to judge Sinner for his possible negligence when a date for the hearing is confirmed. But in the meantime, Italy is enjoying the success of its number one in the world.