Three soft months for a ban and three soft sets for an opening win. As with so many things this year, Jannik Sinner appears to be benefitting from a distinct lack of opposition.
In the serves and volleys of a tennis tournament, that meant a straightforward first-round assignment for the top seed against his fellow Italian Luca Nardi on Tuesday. It was a bit of a mauling.
But in the trickier conversations about Sinner’s reputation, or specifically the question of whether two positive tests for steroids should lessen his standing, a strange level of indifference appears to have swept his sport.
Certainly, there was no outward sign of rebellion from the Court No 1 crowd, which was lukewarm in its reception but, predictably, didn’t venture any behaviours that the curators of these lawns might deem unseemly. He was clapped on and clapped off again.
All of which appeared incredibly generous to a player who should count himself lucky to be part of a sport so eager to move on. That, of course, followed the even greater fortune of a featherweight suspension squeezed between the first and second Slams of the season.
Now that we are at the third, and less than two months on from the expiration of his ban, it has curiously been allowed to feel a lot like old news.
As with so many things this year, Sinner appears to be benefitting from a lack of opposition
Jannik Sinner cruised into the Wimbledon second round after beating Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-3, 6-0
There was no sign of rebellion from the Court No 1 crowd, which was lukewarm in its reception
After this moderate workout against Nardi, he was asked about a remodelled service motion, his thoughts on automated line judges and the lessons learnt since he lost the French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz. Like a mid-court forehand, they were comfortably returned to the sender, before he faced one on any concerns he might have had about the crowd’s reaction to his presence.
‘To be honest, no,’ he said.
The follow-up centred on the response of fans in general and also his fellow professionals, a number of whom had initially been furious about the seemingly favourable way his case had been handled.
‘I mean, I think people kind of have forgotten already a little bit what happened,’ he said. ‘There are still things, new notifications, whatever, coming. That’s the good and the bad of social (media) that something happens and people don’t know anymore what happened yesterday.
‘In the other way, I have good relationship with more or less all players like I had before. Of course, in the beginning was a bit different. But I think they all saw that I’m a very clean player.
‘I was never intending to do anything bad. It was an incident, yes. It happened. But the result also says that I haven’t done anything on purpose. It’s all good.’
Jannik Sinner should count himself extremely lucky to be part of a sport so eager to move on
Sinner let his fitness coaches go after he was found to have an anabolic steroid in his system
That so many have ‘forgotten’ might draw a few rolled eyes from those in track and field, or cycling, where a positive test can amount to a reputational death, irrespective of elaborate reasonings pointing towards careless members of an entourage.
For Sinner, the show goes on, with the benefit that he never had to leave second gear against Nardi, who once beat Novak Djokovic but at the age of 21 is yet to win a match at a Slam. The world No 95 kept it level for eight games before wilting under the relentless pressure of Sinner and then crumbling altogether in a 6-0 third-set drubbing.
Unlike Alcaraz, who needed five sets to get past Fabio Fognini on Monday, Sinner’s exposure to the burning heat would last less than two hours without facing a break point. He next plays Aleksandar Vukic, the world No 93, in the second round.
