Jannik Sinner has been a notable absentee from the ATP Tour in recent weeks as he serves a three-month suspension for a doping violation and former world No 1 Andy Roddick believes what comes next could shape a few agendas in years to come.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a> accepted a short ban from tennis amid the threat of a one-year suspension if he had taken his case against the World Anti-Doping Agenda all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n It means world No 1 Sinner has missed recent tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami and he will also miss the start of the clay court season, including ATP Masters 1000 events in Monte Carlo and Madrid.<\/p>\n While he has been denied the chance to challenge for world ranking points and big money, his time away from the court could work in his favour if he returns refreshed and revived against opponents who have had hectic schedules on court in his absence.<\/p>\n Speaking on the latest edition of his Served<\/a> podcast, former US Open champion pondered whether Sinner would benefit from the break away from tennis as he targets his first French Open title at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you are ever a winner when you get suspended for three months\u2026 but will he look back in a year in a half and say you know what, that was decent. I had a pretty hectic schedule, played two majors (this summer), was there a benefit to it? Maybe,\u201d said Roddick.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen is one of two things. He\u2019s not going to play as well in Rome or the French Open and by the way, it\u2019s not his best surface, so we are going to overreact to whatever the result is for Jannik Sinner when he comes back.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will say \u2018that really hurt him\u2019 if he loses in Rome, or if he loses in the semi-finals of the French Open, but that could have happened [whether he was banned or not].<\/p>\n Roddick went on to suggest Sinner and other players may look at how the Italian reacts to his unwanted time away from tennis and may conclude that taking a break after the ATP 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami is a shrewd move in preparation for the French Open.<\/p>\n The question here is how will other players react if a fresh and hungry Sinner springs back into top gear and performs well in Rome at the French Open, would that encourage other players to take some time off at the start of the clay court season in years to come?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat will be curious is moving forward, with this three-month gap, with the schedule being too busy, maybe he takes parts of this three months [off],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe he says I play Indian Wells and Miami and I doesn\u2019t play Monte Carlo. I get a later start, I buy myself during the clay court season to refresh.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think this experience may be a good learning tool and maybe you take the good parts of it. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinner spoke at length about his decision to accept a doping ban for the first time in an interview with Sky Italy, as he reflected on a tough decision that he felt forced to take.<\/p>\n \u2018I really believe Jannik Sinner can win the Calendar Grand Slam this year\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Exclusive: Has \u2018more consistent\u2019 Jannik Sinner\u2019s absence fuelled Carlos Alcaraz criticism?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe decision to take the three-month suspension was rather quick. We accepted it quite quickly, even though I didn\u2019t agree completely. There was a bit of back and forth with my lawyer and the people around me,\u201d the Italian said. \u201cAfter we took this decision, it took me a while to find myself again.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I am still here. There is still a bit of time to digest all this, but I can\u2019t wait to be back in Rome. It\u2019s a special tournament for me, even though it will also very tough. I\u2019ll be back in a moment in which there will be already a lot of attention on me, and in Rome it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very fragile after what happened. I would tell a lie if I said I was a person without feelings or emotions. In life you learn, every year I learn more about myself, also about my values. It was not easy, very hard at times, but the people around me gave me the strength to understand what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n He remains unsure how other players on the tour will react to his return.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t answer this question as I don\u2019t know what could happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI know how things went, I know I am innocent.<\/p>\n \u201cI am calm because, in the end, I know that what I want to do is to play tennis and be serene. That\u2019s the end of the story. So, I am sure all will go well, even if at the beginning it will take a while to start over. These are questions I don\u2019t know how to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinner has confirmed he will return to action at the Rome Masters next month, where he is set to be the top seed.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: \u2018Jannik Sinner has the same competitive arrogance bordering on ruthlessness as Novak Djokovic\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Will Jannik Sinner\u2019s doping ban boost his French Open hopes \u2013 Andy Roddick\u2019s verdict<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jannik Sinner has been a notable absentee from the ATP Tour in recent weeks as he serves a three-month suspension for a doping violation and former world No 1 Andy Roddick believes what comes next could shape a few agendas in years to come. Sinner accepted a short ban from tennis amid the threat of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n