Jannik Sinner not thinking about doping case as he toasts Australian Open win

By Eleanor Crooks, PA Tennis Correspondent, Melbourne

Jannik Sinner expressed pride in his continued ability to put his ongoing doping case to one side and dominate on court.

The world number one defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3 7-6 (4) 6-3 to successfully defend his Australian Open title and make it three victories in a row at the hard-court grand slams after he also won the US Open.

Just before the fortnight in New York came the shock news that Sinner had failed two doping tests last March but been cleared of blame, only for that decision to be appealed against by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

On the eve of the Australian Open, meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the hearing would take place in April, meaning Sinner could potentially miss the year’s next grand slam, the French Open in May, if he is given a ban.

“I’m not thinking at the moment about this,” said the 23-year-old, who is the first Italian man or woman to win three slam singles titles.

“I just came off an amazing run again here. I want to enjoy this moment. Then it’s the hearing. We know now the dates, and that’s it.

“I’m very proud. It’s actually tough to describe. Many, many things happen off the court, what you maybe don’t know. When I go on the court, even if sometimes it’s very difficult to block these kind of things, I have the team and people who are close to me who trust me.

“That for me is even more important because I can talk very openly with them. When I go on court, I try to focus on the match. Of course, it’s still a little bit in the back of your mind. I know that I’m in this position now. So nothing I can change.

“I keep playing like this because I have a clear mind on what happened. If I know if I would be guilty, I would not play like this. Every time it (the case) came out in a very positive way, and I still believe it’s going to be that case.

“At the moment I’m not thinking about this. Of course, you have your moments of certain days where you feel like I wish I would not have this problem.”

Sinner’s consistent excellence in the face of such outside negativity has been remarkable, with the Italian extending his unbeaten run to 21 matches dating back to a loss to Carlos Alcaraz in Beijing in early October.

Like his big rival, who sent his congratulations, Sinner has won his first three slam finals and is now only one behind the Spaniard, while he equalled an ATP record by winning 47 of his first 50 matches as world number one.

Sinner has not lost a match on hard courts at a major since a defeat by Zverev in the fourth round of the US Open in 2023, and a repeat never looked on the cards here.

The defeat means Zverev’s search for a first slam title goes on, with the German now having lost finals in New York, Paris and Melbourne.

The other two were five-set battles he might have won but he was under pressure from the start here thanks to his opponent’s relentless ball striking and superb movement.

Zverev began to exert some pressure late in the second set and was left cursing his luck at 4-4 in the tie-break when a Sinner forehand hit the top of the net and dropped over.

Moments later, a forehand from Sinner landed on the outside of the line to seal the set and Zverev, who did not create a break point all night, slammed his racket angrily onto his bag in response.

Sinner had been two sets down to Daniil Medvedev in the final last year before fighting back but his opponent could find no way into the contest and another break of serve at 2-3 was the final nail in his coffin.

Zverev cut an understandably downbeat figure and was consoled by Sinner ahead of the trophy ceremony, where he described himself as “not good enough”.

“It was just a difficult moment for me,” said the German.

“Now, for the third time, seeing somebody lift the trophy, me standing next to that, is difficult because there’s nothing more I want than to be able to hold one of those trophies in my hands.

“I don’t want to end my career as the best player of all time to never win a grand slam, that’s for sure. I’ll keep doing everything I can to lift one of those trophies.”

Zverev described Sinner as being “in a different universe” to the rest of the tour on hard courts and compared his level to peak Novak Djokovic.

“He’s very, very similar to Novak when he was at his best,” said the 27-year-old.

“They barely miss. They make you think you have to overhit all the time to have a chance in a rally against them. Just right now too good for me.”