Brad Gilbert has called Jannik Sinner\u2019s three-month suspension \u2018a joke\u2019 and warned that the Italian will have to be \u2018careful\u2019 during his return to tennis.<\/p>\n
The world No 1 is due to return to professional tennis at the Rome Masters after a three-month suspension for failing two doping tests in March 2024.<\/p>\n
Sinner\u2019s<\/a> last match was the final of the 2025 Australian Open, where he defeated Alexander Zverev to lift the third Grand Slam of his career.<\/p>\n Gilbert, a former coach of Coco Gauff and Andre Agassi, aired his views on the Italian\u2019s suspension and his much-anticipated return to tennis whilst speaking on the Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are out through injury it\u2019s probably easier [than being suspended],\u201d stated Gilbert.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a much more difficult scenario to come back from because mentally, how do you keep practicing for this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think the whole goal is to get matches at Rome, Hamburg and then be ready for Paris and Wimbledon.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the two most important. It\u2019s not about what he does in Rome, but it\u2019s how he peaks physically so that he is ready to play best of five in Paris. I think that is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n 12 months ago, Sinner was forced to withdraw from his quarter-final match at the Madrid Masters \u2013 due to hip pain \u2013 before pulling out from the Rome event just a week later.<\/p>\n The importance of injury prevention was something which was emphasised by the esteemed coach.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to be careful when they come back that they don\u2019t go too hard, you don\u2019t want to get hurt,\u201d remarked Gilbert.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I expect by Paris that he is going to be ready and he will be one of the top three favourites to win that tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the ban I thought that whole thing was a joke. Any time any player has one billionth of something that is nothing and it should be just a warning like missing a drug test.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic\u2019s next move confirmed with key schedule change<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner\u2019s attempts to downplay expectations dismissed by two Grand Slam champions<\/a><\/p>\n The world No 1, himself, also made clear that his main goal is the French Open<\/a>, downplaying expectations for the Rome event.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like the first day when you go [back to] school again,\u201d joked Sinner, during his pre-tournament press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know exactly what to expect.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy though to be here, and in Rome. It\u2019s a very special place, for an Italian to make a comeback here, it\u2019s going to be very special.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd everything together, I\u2019m just happy. Not many expectations at all, I\u2019m just trying to get back on court and having a good feel with what\u2019s happening on the court and with the crowd all together, so yeah let\u2019s see.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of attention [on me], a lot of people, but in my mind I know how much these people give me, they supported me throughout this whole process, especially in these last three months. I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Brad Gilbert explains why Jannik Sinner needs to be \u2018careful\u2019 during return to tennis<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brad Gilbert has called Jannik Sinner\u2019s three-month suspension \u2018a joke\u2019 and warned that the Italian will have to be \u2018careful\u2019 during his return to tennis. The world No 1 is due to return to professional tennis at the Rome Masters after a three-month suspension for failing two doping tests in March 2024. Sinner\u2019s last match […]<\/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-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","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=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest ATP News<\/h3>\n