The familiar face of Emma Raducanu is in New York and is “inspired” to be back where she won her first and only Grand Slam title.

Tennis in 2021 was arguably Britain’s sporting highlight of the 2020s, as Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam with her triumph at the US Open.

All summer, the British No. 2 has spoken of finding joy in tennis again, something she has long struggled to do. The results she has achieved over the past four months back up those feelings. Raducanu has reached the quarterfinals or beyond in four of her last six tour events, made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon and played a crucial role in Britain’s victory over France on clay in the Billie Jean King Cup.

I feel very proud when I come here. I walk past my photo every day. I walk past my name on the trophy every day. I think it’s an incredible achievement and in these two weeks I’ve accomplished it. I come back with a completely different mindset. Just joy and pride and that inspires me to want to do more.

Although Sinner has stated that he did not receive preferential treatment, many disagree, an opinion that Novak Djokovic can “understand”. In light of the recent case against Sinner, the Serb called for a change in the anti-doping rules.

We see a lack of standardized and clear protocols. I can understand the feelings of many players who wonder if they are being treated equally. Hopefully the governing bodies of our sport can learn from this case and develop a better approach in the future. Collectively, something needs to change and I think that is obvious.

Many players – without naming any of them, you probably already know who it is – have had similar or very similar cases that did not lead to the same result. And now the question is whether it is a question of finances, whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount of money to a law firm that will then represent his case more efficiently. I don’t know. Is that the case or not? I really think we need to look into this together.

Carlos Alcaraz reacted cautiously when asked about his rival’s positive test:

In the end, they declared him innocent and he’s in the tournament. I think there’s not much left to talk about and at least I don’t have much to say. It’s something that gets talked about (in the dressing room).

As already mentioned, “sinner” is on everyone’s lips. The Italian has had an explosive year: in January he won his first Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne and immediately rose to number one in the world at the French Open.

The Italian made his first media appearance since the results were announced in New York last week. While the moderator tried to block questions on the subject after just one question, Sinner seemed happy to answer all questions in detail and was fully engaged with his questioners.

I’ve had to play with it in my head for months, but I keep reminding myself that I didn’t do anything wrong. I always respect these rules and I will always respect these anti-doping rules. For me, this result is of course a relief.

Any player who tests positive has to go through the same process. There is no shortcut, there is no different treatment, it is the same process for everyone.

Sinner will begin his US Open campaign against American Mackenzie McDonald, who is ranked 119th in the world.

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