"Jannik Sinner seemed a little bit more down" - Prakash Amritraj on Italian's 'subdued' off-camera reaction to birthday wish amid doping row
Jannik Sinner testing positive for Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid, has left the tennis world divided. Many have jumped to his defense while others have criticized the alleged leniency dealt to him.
Tennis observer Prakash Amritraj, for one, said appearing on Tennis Channel he noticed signs of something being off with the World No. 1 before his test results were made public.
Recalling an encounter with Sinner around his birthday, Amritraj said he looked a “bit more down” than usual when he wished him on the occasion. He said the Italian had at the time said that he was keeping his birthday celebrations low-key.
"I just think that this came out right after Cincinnati... throughout the whole week. [Jannik Sinner] seemed a little bit more down, a little bit more subdued than he normally is," Prakash Amritraj said.
"Even on his birthday, [we] wished him happy birthday and sort of asked him after, when we were off camera, you know, how you doing, how are you celebrating and he said, you know, I'm just gonna kind of keep it a little low-key."
Amrtiraj said the World No. 1 was “subdued” even after his Cincinnati Open title win and attributed it to him being still “locked in”. He said the later revelation of the doping row helped him make sense of Sinner’s unusual behavior.
"It was a bit more subdued even when he came for the finals interview, I said, man you've won the title, you know, why are you so serious? He just 'I'm just locked in, you know, still in the match,'" Prakash Amritraj said. "And now it sort of all tracks, all makes sense."
"Jannik Sinner is one of the cleanest guys out there" - Prakash Amritraj
Prakash Amritraj heaped praise on Jannik Sinner appearing on Tennis Channel, dubbing him one of the “cleanest guys” on Tour.
"This is a lot to deal with over five months and [Jannik Sinner] is one of the cleanest guys out there. Everybody loves him," Prakash Amritraj said. "He is such a class act."
"He first came on as a 18-year-old all the way to now, he's always carried himself with such integrity in the way he speaks and such a fan of him, but it's not easy to be able to do this."
"Having said that, the fact that he won Cincinnati... it shows, even at this young age, you can compartmentalize and perhaps that's something that he will need to do during this event also," he added.
While Sinner was not banned after testing positive for Clostebol, he was stripped of his Indian Wells prize money and ranking points since the sample was collected at the time of the tournament.