Bild attacks Sinner: "Victory with aftertaste of doping case"

Rome, 26 January 2025 – Harsh attack by Bild on Jannik Sinner both on the eve of the final act of theAustralian Open against the German Alexander Zverev that mission accomplished. 

"A victory with an aftertaste", commented Bild online. "Zverev's dream destroyed", headlined the German newspaper, underlining that the German defeated in three sets is in his third lost Slam final. "But for Sinner - the belief expressed in the first report of the final - it is a victory with an aftertaste". Bild recalls that the world number 1 tennis player celebrates his third success in a year in a Major, but as in New York this encore in Melbourne has an aftertaste for the doping case. "Sinner tested positive twice for the anabolic steroid Clostebol in March 2024, but he has not yet been disqualified - adds Bild -. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where Sinner will be heard on 16 and 17 April. He risks a ban of up to two years", recalled Bild.

On the eve of the match, Bild had been even harsher. “Overwhelmed by the scandal”, the newspaper wrote in its online edition, attacking Sinner head-on in favor of the 'home-grown' tennis player. 

The author of the article, in the popular German newspaper and news site, argued that "the fact that Sinner is in the final of a Slam for the second time in a row after the US Open is a farce for many players, experts and observers of the scene” and “it is unusual that he is allowed to defend his title”.

It was also stressed that "Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios they criticized the procedure in this doping case.”

Rebuilding il Clostebol case, it has been claimed that Italian "has turned out positive twice during the Indian Wells Masters, but the case was made public only five months later, a week before the start of the US Open, after the acquittal”.

The author then called it "shocking that the case was not heard a long time ago and that Sinner still manages to win in Australia as if nothing had happened" and stated that "he will not have to appear before the Tas of Lausanne before 16 and 17 April, when he risks a disqualification of up to two years". "If the matter had not been hushed up – concluded the author –, Zverev would have become nnumber 1 in the world a long time”.

The 27-year-old German, however, had only words of utmost admiration for his Italian rival. Heartbroken and with tears in his eyes, he commented after the defeat: 

"Jannik Sinner is from another planet: he's better than me right now, it's simple. I think I served better than him, but he did everything else better than me. From the baseline he completely dominated me. He moves better than me. He hit his forehands better than me. He hits his backhands better than me. He returns better than me. He's better at volleying. In short, there are five or six key shots in tennis and he hits four or five of them better than me. That's why he won. He deserved it". When asked specifically, Zverev underlined that Sinner reminds him of Djokovic. "It's very, very similar to Novak when he was at the top. Both are rarely wrong. At the moment, Sinner is too strong for me. Again, I will do everything I can to compete with them and lift the trophy (of a Grand Slam, ed.), but today I was not good at all". The German underlined that on hard courts "Sinner is by far the best. The facts speak for themselves: he has won all the Grand Slams played on hard courts since last year. At the moment, he is in another universe".