Sinner adds two new staff to team after doping case
US Open champion Jannik Sinner introduced a new fitness coach and physiotherapist to his team on Monday after firing two previous staff members because of their part in a doping case.
Marco Panichi takes over as fitness coach and Ulises Badio as Sinner’s physiotherapist. Both Panichi and Badio previously worked with Novak Djokovic.
“Welcome to the team Marco and Ulises,” Sinner wrote on Instagram below a photo of him with his new team members. Sinner will continue to work with his osteopath, Andrea Cipolla.
The new recruits arrive in the wake of Sinner’s two positive steroid tests in March for the banned substance Clostebol. He was not suspended, however, after it was ruled that the Clostebol entered his system unintentionally via a massage from his former physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi.
Sinner said his former fitness trainer, Umberto Ferrara, bought a spray containing the steroid and gave it to Naldi for a cut on Naldi’s finger. Naldi then treated Sinner while not wearing gloves.
The doping case prompted a furore – and criticism from rival players including Nick Kyrgios – because it was kept secret until an announcement last month. Sinner then went on to beat Taylor Fritz in the US Open final.
Sinner announced before the US Open that he had fired Naldi and Ferrara, saying: “I’m not feeling that confident to continue with them. Now I just need some clean air.”
Panichi and Badio officially started working with Sinner in Monaco on Monday and will travel with the two-time Grand Slam champion to upcoming tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai.
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