Tennis 2025

The women's final was a thriller. Keys was widely hyped and touted as future grand slam champion, the next big thing in the sport, the player to take the 'US torch' from Serena etc, when she was a teenager. She completely froze against her good friend Sloane Stephens in the 2017 US Open final, and should have beaten Sabalenka in their 2023 US Opens semi-final but collapsed and then broke down in tears in her press conference afterwards. After that defeat, many people thought that she had blown her last chance to win a grand slam.

After getting married during the off-season, to winning a grand slam beating the 10th seed Collins, 6th seed and former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, another seeded player in Svitolina, the world no. 2 Swiatek saving a match point on return, and then the world no 1 and two time defending champion Sabalenka in succession, is just incredible. Definitely the best women's grand slam title run during his current decade.
 
Zverev called himself the best ever player to never win a grand slam.

I may not like him, but he's an incredibly good player, sure.

However, he's lived in an era with 3 over 30(the best of all time, yes) players reaching the back end of their careers, and could not beat a single one when it mattered.
There's a reason Novak memes them as much as he does.

Can't help but think Berdych, Tsonga and Ferrer lived in an era where the Big 3 were godlike, and in any other moment, all 3 would be grand slam winners at least once.
Especially Berdych.
 
Maybe Carlos pulls it off this time. He's spanish so beating Spain's true nemesis Botic would be a huge upset!

Up a break in the third
 


I always liked Schwartzman. He really got more from his game than he was entitled to.
 

Sinner accepts three-month doping ban after settlement with WADA​


https://www.reuters.com/sports/tenn...ng-ban-after-settlement-with-wada-2025-02-15/


I still find it ridiculous, but I guess they needed to penalize him with anything for consistency; just realized that Świątek got banned last year as well.

WADA statement

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that it has entered into a case resolution agreement in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, with the player accepting a three-month period of ineligibility for an anti-doping rule violation that led to him testing positive for clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024. 

In September, WADA lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case of Mr. Sinner, who had been found by an Independent Tribunal to bear no fault or negligence.

Notwithstanding this appeal, the circumstances surrounding this specific case meant that in order to ensure a fair and appropriate outcome, WADA was prepared to enter into a settlement agreement, in accordance with Article 10.8.2 of the World Anti-Doping Code.

WADA accepts the athlete’s explanation for the cause of the violation as outlined in the first instance decision. WADA accepts that Mr. Sinner did not intend to cheat, and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage. However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence. Based on the unique set of facts of this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome. As previously stated, WADA did not seek a disqualification of any results, save that which was previously imposed by the tribunal of first instance. The International Tennis Federation and International Tennis Integrity Agency, both co-respondents to WADA’s CAS appeal, neither of which appealed the first-instance decision, both accepted the case resolution agreement. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Sinner will serve his period of ineligibility from 9 February 2025 to 11:59 pm on 4 May 2025 (which includes a credit for four days previously served by the athlete while he was under a provisional suspension). As per the Code Article 10.14.2, Mr. Sinner may return to official training activity from 13 April 2025. 

In light of the case resolution agreement, WADA has formally withdrawn its appeal to CAS.  

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/news/wada-agrees-case-resolution-agreement-case-jannik-sinner
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What a pathetic decision, I mean it's one thing to look at 3 months is right or not but to let him play on while this is decided & then allow a convinient timing where he doesn't miss any slams is just pathetic
 
Such a non-ban. 3 month ban vs no ban are pretty much the same. He will miss some masters but in "grand" scheme of things it wont matter. I just hope he wasn't doped last year when he demolished Novak at AO semi and gave him hell in ATP finals / Davis cup. Doping in tennis is not as benign as in cycling/racing. In tennis, it means making opponents play longer and harder to beat you - which can cause body tear and injuries.
But they say - if you ain't cheating you ain't trying.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
What a pathetic decision, I mean it's one thing to look at 3 months is right or not but to let him play on while this is decided & then allow a convinient timing where he doesn't miss any slams is just pathetic
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He was cleared by ITIA, so of course he was playing while waiting for CAS appeal, why wouldn't he. As for timing, it's a settlement. Of course it's convenient to Sinner, otherwise he wouldn't have taken it
ExoduS said:
Such a non-ban. 3 month ban vs no ban are pretty much the same. He will miss some masters but in "grand" scheme of things it wont matter.
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Yeah, that's the point of a settlement
ExoduS said:
I just hope he wasn't doped last year when he demolished Novak at AO semi and gave him hell in ATP finals / Davis cup.
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Of course he was doping. Mind you, so was Djokovic, and Nadal, and pretty every top athlete for the past like 50 years

Better question would be - was he doping using banned substances? This we'll probably never know
 
giorno said:
He was cleared by ITIA, so of course he was playing while waiting for CAS appeal, why wouldn't he. As for timing, it's a settlement. Of course it's convenient to Sinner, otherwise he wouldn't have taken it

Yeah, that's the point of a settlement

Of course he was doping. Mind you, so was Djokovic, and Nadal, and pretty every top athlete for the past like 50 years

Better question would be - was he doping using banned substances? This we'll probably never know
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Well it's a pathetic look for tennis. Of course it's a good settlement for Sinner. It's very important to manage the sport's image & perception when a thing like this happens and this just is awful for tennis & ATP
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
Well it's a pathetic look for tennis. Of course it's a good settlement for Sinner. It's very important to manage the sport's image & perception when a thing like this happens and this just is awful for tennis & ATP
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It’s pathetic because the entire “thing” was pathetic as well. It’s just a way to end a dispute while acknowledging all parties’: the player was deemed at fault for not controlling 100% his staff, WADA got their scalp for something so ininfluent a fine would have been enough to affirm their principle. Before, during and after that, it’s all politics. Even people commenting over this same topic know it’s politics and doing their part dutily, as for their own allegiance.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:
Well it's a pathetic look for tennis. Of course it's a good settlement for Sinner. It's very important to manage the sport's image & perception when a thing like this happens and this just is awful for tennis & ATP
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I don't disagree it's bad optics but i'm not sure what they can do better honestly

As for the settlement itself, this was less about the image of tennis and more about the image of WADA - losing the appeal would have been devastating for them, but even winning, if Sinner got 1 year, would been bad optics while they're in the process of changing their protocols so that cases like Sinner's get more lenient punishments going forward

Throw in that WADA has spoken about looking into changing the tolerance levels of their tests too, and the fact they've all along more or less endorsed the "involuntary assumption through external contamination" defence - whenever a WADA official spoke about it the message was always "He's not doping, his team fecked up but he is responsible for them" - confirmed by their appeal...

add WADA's current troubles with USADA - the latter of whom being responsible for the "WADA are just trying to cover their asses after letting the chinese swimmers get away with no punishment" message...

even a guilty sentence could have been really bad for WADA
 
giorno said:
Of course he was doping. Mind you, so was Djokovic, and Nadal, and pretty every top athlete for the past like 50 years

Better question would be - was he doping using banned substances? This we'll probably never know
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Last time I checked - Djokovic never missed Olympics and from what I heard - Olympic doping testing is very rigorous, more rigorous than ATP testing. Olympics are every 4 years so there is an argument that Djokovic might have been using something illegal in between but there is absolutely zero proof for that. Novak had hiatus in 2017 but he still played, so there is no base for "silent ban" argument. Nadal on another hand had very strange injury pauses over and over, and somehow always was coming back stronger until the very end.

Only possible proof of Djokovic doing something shady are those mixolology situations that his trainers were hiding from being recorded by fans. To me that looked more like hiding a trade secret than hiding doping/illegal activity. Players randomly get tested after matches as well so it would be CRAZY to "dope" during a match.

I also do not see why Djokovic's wrong doings would be hidden under rug. He has been defaulted from a slam, deported from a country. Sure - his doing, but doping would be his doing as well and I just don't see Novak's career not being destroyed because of it.
 
ExoduS said:
Last time I checked - Djokovic never missed Olympics and from what I heard - Olympic doping testing is very rigorous, more rigorous than ATP testing. Olympics are every 4 years so there is an argument that Djokovic might have been using something illegal in between but there is absolutely zero proof for that.
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It's likely he never used banned substances
ExoduS said:
Nadal on another hand had very strange injury pauses over and over, and somehow always was coming back stronger until the very end.
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Nadal was heavily suspected of being among the athletes involved with Eufemiano Fuentes
ExoduS said:
Players randomly get tested after matches as well so it would be CRAZY to "dope" during a match.
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Or indeed, during a tournament
ExoduS said:
I also do not see why Djokovic's wrong doings would be hidden under rug. He has been defaulted from a slam, deported from a country. Sure - his doing, but doping would be his doing as well and I just don't see Novak's career not being destroyed because of it.
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Again, I don't know if Djokovic ever used anything illegal, chances are he didn't. That still doesn't mean he wasn't using PEDs

It's well known for example that in cycling, doping substances and practices are years ahead of testing. Remember when Sharapova got popped for Meldonium? She'd been taking that shit for years before she got caught and banned. Know how she got caught? she missed the fact the stuff had been banned and kept taking it
 
giorno said:
It's likely he never used banned substances
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Well, Novak clearly used PEDs. I am not going to go Jordan Peterson here and look for some deep definition of "PED". I am strictly speaking about use of banned substances. Caffeine pill is a PED, anti-inflammatory meds are a PED, pain relief medications are PED. Basically any drug taken that improves performance is a PED.

What was found in Sinner's system is an anabolic steroid derived from testosterone. Some athletes were banned for multiple years for using it. Sinner got 3 months.
 
ExoduS said:
Well, Novak clearly used PEDs. I am not going to go Jordan Peterson here and look for some deep definition of "PED". I am strictly speaking about use of banned substances. Caffeine pill is a PED, anti-inflammatory meds are a PED, pain relief medications are PED. Basically any drug taken that improves performance is a PED.
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That's what i'm saying, though Djokovic(and every other top athlete) is also likely taking designer drugs that mimic the effects of currently banned substances. Again, we know that PED r&d is ahead of testing

And so is Sinner
ExoduS said:
What was found in Sinner's system is an anabolic steroid derived from testosterone. Some athletes were banned for multiple years for using it. Sinner got 3 months.
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Sure, and? Every case is different. In this instance, we have a first panel declaring no fault - aka, not doping. Then we have WADA, going through the case and *not* appealing the "no fault" conclusion, because they agree with it(they said as much in their public statement, too). So...the experts, the people we're supposed to trust on these issues, told us "Sinner isn't doping"

I don't believe them, but that's just my opinion, not based on any actual evidence
 
giorno said:
That's what i'm saying, though Djokovic(and every other top athlete) is also likely taking designer drugs that mimic the effects of currently banned substances. Again, we know that PED r&d is ahead of testing

And so is Sinner

Sure, and? Every case is different. In this instance, we have a first panel declaring no fault - aka, not doping. Then we have WADA, going through the case and *not* appealing the "no fault" conclusion, because they agree with it(they said as much in their public statement, too). So...the experts, the people we're supposed to trust on these issues, told us "Sinner isn't doping"

I don't believe them, but that's just my opinion, not based on any actual evidence
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They came to the same conclusion with Nico Jarry but they still suspended him for 1 year and lost all the points won.
 
Ultimately, I guess no one really wanted to go in from of CAS because you couldn't know for certain how that would turn out - a long ban for Sinner (bad for him) or nothing (bad for WADA).

So Sinner gets a short ban and doesn't miss any grand slams, and WADA can say they showed their teeth against the best tennis player in the world, after the story with the Chinese swimmers and WADA's issues with the US, and got some sort of punishment.

It's just a not good for the battle against doping, when it ends up with a deal that serves agendas and feels political.

A weak WADA, an under pressure WADA, is not good for sports.
 
George Owen said:
They came to the same conclusion with Nico Jarry but they still suspended him for 1 year and lost all the points won.
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I mean I agree that the initial ITIA ruling of "no negligence" for Sinner made little sense.

As for bringing up Jarry though, that makes no sense too. Jarry's case was completely different from Sinner's, it's not strange that it would carry a different sentence

Consider also, that this was a settlement - WADA had to offer Sinner a deal he would take
 
Brazilian Joao Fonseca is a very promising young talent. Just won the Buenos Aires open smashing winners from all over the court.
 
giorno said:
I mean I agree that the initial ITIA ruling of "no negligence" for Sinner made little sense.

As for bringing up Jarry though, that makes no sense too. Jarry's case was completely different from Sinner's, it's not strange that it would carry a different sentence

Consider also, that this was a settlement - WADA had to offer Sinner a deal he would take
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It should have been up to and including the French Open in my view. That then feels as though there is a solid penalty for it. As it is, as I’ve seen said, it’s a bit like banning a footballer over the summer break. Sinner can chill out after his Oz Open win, with his number 1 ranking secure, and return to a hero’s welcome in Rome.
 
@giorno Fonseca hype train gathering more momentum now he's won his first title.

Even better for him as a Brazilian doing it in Argentina, knocking an argentine out in basically every round as well.
 
Doracle said:
It should have been up to and including the French Open in my view. That then feels as though there is a solid penalty for it. As it is, as I’ve seen said, it’s a bit like banning a footballer over the summer break. Sinner can chill out after his Oz Open win, with his number 1 ranking secure, and return to a hero’s welcome in Rome.
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It was obvious they picked the timing just so that he wouldn't miss any big tournament. You actually couldn't ban him for three months at any other period of the year without him missing neither a grand slam or the ATP World Tour Finals. February to May was the only option.

Unfortunately, it all feels way too political. And it shouldn't be like that with WADA. I don't think Sinner should have been banned at all, at least not according to my logic. Now maybe the wording of the current rules means he could or should have been banned. So if WADA believe that - go all the way and get CAS's objective judgement rather than chicken out.
 
CraftySoAndSo said:
@giorno Fonseca hype train gathering more momentum now he's won his first title.

Even better for him as a Brazilian doing it in Argentina, knocking an argentine out in basically every round as well.
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I have reservations about his court coverage, but he absolutely balled out here. Besting 4 argies in argentina, 3 straight 3 sets wars, just showed immense mental qualities and the heart of a champion

And he still strikes the ball like nothing I've ever seen :o
Amir said:
It was obvious they picked the timing just so that he wouldn't miss any big tournament. You actually couldn't ban him for three months at any other period of the year without him missing neither a grand slam or the ATP World Tour Finals. February to May was the only option.

Unfortunately, it all feels way too political. And it shouldn't be like that with WADA. I don't think Sinner should have been banned at all, at least not according to my logic. Now maybe the wording of the current rules means he could or should have been banned. So if WADA believe that - go all the way and get CAS's objective judgement rather than chicken out.
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WADA got exactly what they wanted. They *are* changing their protocols so that infractions like Sinner's will be punished like this (3-6 months or so) in the future - so this establishes precedent for that - and most importantly, they protect their protocols on athletes liability for their team's negligence, instead of risking a back-breaking adverse verdict by CAS

It *is* "political". I'm not sure they would have appealed otherwise. Had ITIA given Sinner a month suspension, like Iga, I'm convinced they wouldn't have
 
So WADA is just a bunch of fecking w*nkers or even patented idiots, right? Not that it’s breaking news at all, but their post-settlement rush to prevent piranhas eating Sinner while explaining he was not (in this case) and never doping (at all, in the last year) is pure bonkers.
 
Bepi said:
So WADA is just a bunch of fecking w*nkers or even patented idiots, right? Not that it’s breaking news at all, but their post-settlement rush to prevent piranhas eating Sinner while explaining he was not (in this case) and never doping (at all, in the last year) is pure bonkers.
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In this case, I don't think it was WADA that did anything wrong per se - I think the bigger issue was the ITIA not giving him a ban whatsoever before the US Open. The timing of it all is convenient for Sinner but due to the timelines, it also wouldn't have felt right for them to wait and then issue the ban in May, making him miss RG and Wimbledon. The process is cloudy though which makes it look extremely messy.

WADA didn't have an issue with the facts of the case, just the ruling of no ban. Players have been banned for contamination or low levels of substances but in Sinner's case, while he may not have known, someone in his team fecked up and as a result there should be some consequence as a result.
 
saivet said:
In this case, I don't think it was WADA that did anything wrong per se - I think the bigger issue was the ITIA not giving him a ban whatsoever before the US Open. The timing of it all is convenient for Sinner but due to the timelines, it also wouldn't have felt right for them to wait and then issue the ban in May, making him miss RG and Wimbledon. The process is cloudy though which makes it look extremely messy.

WADA didn't have an issue with the facts of the case, just the ruling of no ban. Players have been banned for contamination or low levels of substances but in Sinner's case, while he may not have known, someone in his team fecked up and as a result there should be some consequence as a result.
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The simple fact they had to rush out for explanations just means the entire process was adventurous (to put it gently) from the start, with all sort of smearing and sniding far outnumbering truly valid points of view like yours.
 
And after his biblical loss to a one-legged Medjedovic in Doha, Tsitsipas changes racquet and wins his first 500 of his career, playing the best tennis in like 3 years

Medvedev should take notice
 
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