ROMA – Athletes are rarely welcomed from the ban on doping in so many fanfares.
Top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner was treated to a stadium filled with nearly 5,000 fans on Monday for his first practice session at the Italian Open.
The training session, which was shown live on local television, comes after the sinner was the most famous player in a ceremony honoring the Italian team that swept the Davis Cup and the Billy Junking Cup last year.
Both trophies were on hand, and the Campo Centrale crowds kept out the Italian national anthem.
This is the first time Italy has won the number one player in a home tournament. Still, the sinner was at a loss to explain why he was so attracted so much attention.
“I don’t know. Honestly, I think I’m a simple 23 year old. I’m good at playing tennis, but I haven’t changed the world,” he said. “I remember always coming from a small town of 2,000 people. It’s a big deal to be here in Rome and play in front of so many people.”
The return of Thinner, with the Conclave to elect a new set of popes that begins on Wednesday, begins the Vatican path, “The Sinner of Havemus” (Latin “Havemus Papam!”) It will be announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Cathedral when the Pope is elected.
The Italico scene contrasted with how the sinner felt in February when the sinner received a three-month ban on reconciliation with the world’s anti-doping agency.
“At first I was a bit confused because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” Thinner said. “Then I went home and stayed with my family, trying to better understand what really matters to me.
“How many sacrifices I made, and my daily routine was always practice, practice, practice, practice. But at that moment I didn’t have it. I came to realize that what’s important to me is people on your side.
In addition to families in the German-speaking Alto Adigue region of northern Italy, Sinner spent more time with friends at his home in Monaco, taking part in other sports like cycling, and then gradually returned to tennis.
“We went for about a month without touching it (racket), and then it really softly resumed,” Thinner said. “The blisters developed in my hands when we started pushing more. It was something I had never experienced in a long time.”
The settlement comes after last year suing the International Tennis Integrity Agency for its decision to exonerate the offender completely from what was deemed an accidental contamination from anabolic steroids that was banned in March 2024.
The settlement raised questions as they allowed the sinner to do so conveniently not to miss the Grand Slam and not return in his home tournament.
The Italian opening will be the last big clay court event before the French opening, which begins on May 25th.
“I didn’t want to do it first, and it was a bit less easy to accept that because I really know what happened,” Thinner said of the ban. “But sometimes we have to choose the best in very bad moments, and that’s what we did, so it’s over now.
The advantage of many of their peers is that sinners have been treated too lightly.
Serena Williams told Time magazine that if she had been involved in a similar case, “I would have gotten 20 years.”
“We just arrived 45 minutes ago,” Sinner said. “I’ve never seen that many (other players). Everything is fine at the moment, but I haven’t seen most of them.”
After a goodbye in the first round in Rome, he will face No. 99 Mariano Navone or 18-year-old Italian wild card Federi Cosina on Saturday.
The last Italian to win the Rome title was Adriano Panatta in 1976.
“It’s a very, very low expectations tournament for me,” Thinner said. “It feels very strange at first and I’m paying attention to so many people, but it’s nice to come back.”