BENGALURU. — Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek enjoyed a trophy-laden 2024 but rather than ending the year basking in glory, they were instead fighting for their reputations after receiving only minor reprimands for failing dope tests.
The two cases shocked the tennis world with much fuming at how they were handled by the authorities.
Players and pundits accused those overseeing tennis’s anti-doing program of double standards as they felt Sinner and Swiatek, who were both ranked number one at the time of their respective failed tests, had received preferential treatment.
Rattled by two failed drug tests in March for trace amounts of the anabolic androgenic steroid clostebol, Sinner endured sleepless nights over fears that a ban could stall his career, before being cleared of wrongdoing by an independent tribunal that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination.
However, the men’s world number one will go into the 2025 season facing a possible ban of up to two years after the World Anti-Doping Agency lodged an appeal with sport’s highest court.
“It’s in the head a little bit,” Sinner admitted. “The most important thing is the people who are around me, who know me as a human being, trust me.
“That’s also why I kept playing at the level I did. I was emotionally a bit down, a bit heartbroken. Sometimes life gives you difficulties and you just have to deal with it.”
Sinner captured his first two Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US to split the majors with Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner also won the ATP Finals trophy before masterminding Italy’s successful Davis Cup defense.
Triumphs in Rotterdam, Miami, Halle, Cincinnati and Shanghai meant Sinner had more titles than his six defeats but the doping saga put an asterisk on a stunning season in which he sparked a seismic shift atop the men’s game to shut out Novak Djokovic.
On the women’s tour, Swiatek dazzled with five titles that included her fourth French Open trophy, but was leapfrogged to the top ranking by Australian Open and US Open winner Aryna Sabalenka, and ended the season with a month-long ban.
The Pole tested positive for trimetazidine but authorities accepted it was caused by contamination of her sleep medication melatonin, prompting 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep to slam doping authorities after she had to battle to have her own ban reduced from four years to nine months.
