{"id":18646,"date":"2025-07-24T13:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18646\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T13:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:49:08","slug":"nick-kyrgios-takes-aim-at-jannik-sinner-after-coaching-decision-world-no-1-rehires-umberto-ferrara-doping-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/18646\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios takes aim at Jannik Sinner after coaching decision; World No.1 rehires Umberto Ferrara, doping case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Kyrgios<\/a> has taken a swipe at Jannik Sinner<\/a> after the world No.1 revealed he rehired his fitness coach nearly a year after firing him for his involvement in his doping case.<\/p>\n

Sinner has made several changes to his team in recent weeks with Umberto Ferrara returning to his former role as fitness coach in replace of Marco Panichi.<\/p>\n

The Wimbledon champion<\/a> also confirmed the departure of his physiotherapist Ulises Badio. Although no reasons was provided for his exit.<\/p>\n

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As for Ferrara, Sinner’s team declared his return was a “decision (that) has been made in alignment with Jannik\u2019s management team as part of ongoing preparations for upcoming tournaments\u201d and that he starts with \u201cimmediate effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sinner with Ferrara after winning the 2024 Australian Open.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Umberto has played an important role in Jannik\u2019s development to date, and his return reflects a renewed focus on continuity and performance at the highest level,\u201d a statement from Sinner\u2019s team continued on Wednesday evening (AEST).<\/p>\n

Kyrgios has been a vocal critic of the handling of doping cases in the sport, having fired shots towards Sinner in the past in relation to his individual case.<\/p>\n

“He got the same doc back,” Kyrgios posted on X (formerly Twitter) alongside three laughing faces in response to Sinner’s statement.<\/p>\n

“We have been played ladies and gentlemen.”<\/p>\n

Australian great Paul McNamee shared a similar opinion.<\/p>\n

“Jannik Sinner rehiring Umberta Ferrara has to be up there as one of the most astonishing PR moves in tennis history,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The latest shake-up in Sinner’s team began after he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in a gruelling five-set final at the French Open last month, with the announcement that Panichi and Badio were no longer working with him. When Sinner went on to beat Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final, he didn\u2019t have full-time trainers working with him.<\/p>\n

Last year, Sinner tested positive twice for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid in March; the case wasn\u2019t made public until August, shortly before the US Open, which he ended up winning for the second of his four grand slam titles.<\/p>\n

He initially was completely cleared, based on the defence that he accidentally was exposed to the banned substance, Clostebol, via a massage from his then-physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi. Sinner said his fitness trainer at the time, Ferrara, purchased a product in Italy and gave it to Naldi for a cut on Naldi\u2019s finger. Naldi then treated Sinner while not wearing gloves.<\/p>\n

Sinner then fired Naldi and Ferrara, and Ferrara was hired briefly by Matteo Berrettini, another Italian player.<\/p>\n

The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the exoneration, and Sinner agreed to serve a three-month ban that ended right before the Italian Open in May of this year.<\/p>\n

Sinner will return to action at the Cincinnati Open next month as he prepares to defend his US Open title. He was due to resume training at his base in Monte Carlo this week after a post-Wimbledon break.<\/p>\n

Ferrara, who is also a qualified pharmacist, was first hired by Sinner in 2022.<\/p>\n

Naldi has not been rehired by Sinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios has taken a swipe at Jannik Sinner after the world No.1 revealed he rehired his fitness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-18646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}