Jannik Sinner breaks his silence on Nick Kyrgios' relentless attacks at him over doping row

Jannik Sinner recently spoke for the first time about Nick Kyrgios antagonizing him over his doping controversy. The Italian maintained that he hadn't done anything wrong, which by his account helped him block out the outside noise.

Sinner tested positive for clostebol during the Indian Wells Masters in March. The World No. 1 announced his failed doping tests five months later, though, claiming that there had been detected only "one billionth of a gram" of the prohibited substance.

A few weeks later, the International Tennis Integrity Association (ITIA) found Jannik Sinner to be at "no fault nor negligence". WADA has since appealed the above decision to the Court of Arbitration (CAS), asking for a suspension of at least one to two years.

On Friday (January 10), the Italian was asked during his pre-tournament press conference in Melbourne whether he paid attention to the criticism being meted out to him from the tennis world, especially from Nick Kyrgios - who hasn't missed a step in disparaging him on social media. The 23-year-old responded that since he knew the ins and outs of his case, he wasn't too bogged down by Kyrgios and some of his other peers' negative opinions of him.

"How do I block it? It's not that you just put it in a part and you just say I don't think any more about this. In my mind I know exactly what happened, and that's how I block it, no?" Jannik Sinner told the media at the Australian Open on Friday. "I haven't done anything wrong. That's why I'm still here. That's why I'm still playing. I don't want to respond on what Nick said or what other players says."

He added that having a trustworthy circle of influence around him was important for him.

"I think the most important part is to have my people around me who I can trust, people they exactly know what happened. That's it," he said.

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Nick Kyrgios on Jannik Sinner's struggles with peers after doping controversy: "You tested for steroids, very hard to talk to other people who aren’t"

Nick Kyrgios has been Jannik Sinner's biggest critic lately (Source: Getty)

Last month, Nick Kyrgios took another swipe at Jannik Sinner after the latter spoke about the difficulty he faced in communicating with his fellow tennis pros following the fallout from his doping case. The Italian had admittedly

"It was a tough time. I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. I couldn’t vent or get help..." Sinner said in December. "And even afterwards, my feeling with people was fearful. I went into training at the Cincinnati clubhouse and thought, 'How are they looking at me? What do they really think of me?' I realized who my real friends are."

The former World No. 13 didn't mince his words while responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter) with Sinner's quotes, insisting that it was obvious for a tennis player that "tested positive for steroids" to feel spurned by their peers.

"Yes. You tested for steroids. Very hard to talk to other people who aren’t," Kyrgios wrote in his tweet.

Jannik Sinner, meanwhile, is clearly unfazed by the reception to him lately as he hasn't strayed from his winning ways. The World No. 1 won last year's ATP Finals in convincing fashion and is a heavy favorite to defend his 2024 Australian Open title this month.