'Sinnermania' continues in Italy despite doping controversy

Jannik Sinner won the first two Grand Slam titles of his career this year - either side of failing two doping tests for a banned substance

After the finest season of his career, Jannik Sinner has surged to an almost divine status enjoyed by only a handful of transcendent Italian sporting champions:

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

Sinner is aged just 23. But as the only player from the nation to ever be ranked as the world's best tennis player, he has already joined the pantheon.

The frenzied focus on the boy from San Candido as he arrived at the ATP Finals in Turin - camera-flashing photographers and screaming autograph-hunters being kept at arm's length by burly security men - demonstrated he is a man in demand.

And the well-documented doping case that is still ongoing does not seem to have lessened that demand if the newspaper columns and crowd support at his matches here are anything to go by.

"This is a fully 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 has been 'Sinnermania' in Turin.

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

On the secondary market, entry for the group-stage matches touched 600 euros (£500). For the final - where everyone hopes to see their ginger-haired hero, nicknamed the 'Orange Fox' - they are going for 1,500 euros (£1,250).

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

His tennis quality and off-court personality - calmness and an understated humour - have made him a national darling and attracted blue-chip Italian brands to fight for his endorsement.

"Jannik represents a new way of being a tennis number one, one very close to people," said Diego Nargiso, a former world number 67 and now the master of ceremonies at the ATP Finals, the season-ending tournament for the top eight men's singles players and doubles teams.

"He’s 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 not only allows him to raise his game when it counts most, but also helped him out of the toughest period of his career.

Italy continues to support Sinner

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

Clostebol is an anabolic steroid which, if taken in large amounts, can lead to performance enhancement. It is also used for the treatment of skin wounds.

Sinner's team argued he had been inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist who had applied a healing spray to treat a cut on his own hand and then carried out treatments on the player.

In August, an International Tennis Integrity Agency independent panel found Sinner bore "no fault or negligence" for the positive tests.

However, as Sinner hoped to move on, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Wada argues he should bear responsibility and seeks a ban between one and two years.

The support Sinner has enjoyed this week in Turin has been an indication of how many in Italy view the case and the doping allegations.

"Jannik, Italy is with you," wrote Gazzetta dello Sport, one of the nation's most prominent newspapers, on the day of his opening match.

After Sinner beat Taylor Fritz in his second ATP Finals match on Tuesday, the 14,000 fans inside the Inalpi Arena - punctuated with fluorescent orange shirts, wigs and carrot fancy dress - started singing his name so loud he had to stop congratulating his rival to quell them.

The likelihood of the mood of his fans changing, even if Cas rules against Sinner and issues a suspension, looks slim.

Another clostebol controversy in Italy

Sinner’s case has similarities with the one which involved former Atalanta footballer Jose Luis Palomino, who twice tested positive for clostebol in 2022 and was later cleared of wrongdoing.

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

"Both are used for their proven cicatrizing power.

"During my career I have assisted about 20 athletes in similar situations; all of them had three things in common: they were Italian or living in Italy, the low concentration of the substance, the presence in their entourage of someone who had used Trofodermin."

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

Trofodermin can only be bought without prescription in Italy and in some countries in central America, says Salomone.

According to Italian law, the packaging on Trofodermin 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 - across tennis, football and athletics - have still tested positive for clostebol in recent years.

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

It contains different experiments; the most significant of those foresaw the application of Trofodermin on the hands of a participant, who then shook hands - 30 minutes later - with the other seven.

"Five of those tested positive to clostebol," noted Salomone.

"The scientific evidence is there and the ITIA judgement confirmed it."

Scepticism about Sinner's case remains for some, including several of his ATP peers.

It will fall on Cas to judge Sinner on his potential negligence when a date for the hearing is confirmed. But in the meantime, Italy is revelling in the success of its world number one.

Jannik Sinner was presented with the ATP year-end world number one trophy in Turin this week