Jannik Sinner, still pursued by doping authorities, played with the same calm precision that has made him No. 1

As Jannik Sinner heard his name announced, and he began his walk into Rod Laver Arena on Monday afternoon, he seemed to hesitate just a bit as he waited to hear the crowd’s reaction.

That hesitation didn’t last for more than a millisecond; the reticent redhead’s reaction’s rarely do. But Sinner admitted later that he did feel a little extra uncertainty before his first match at the year’s first major.

“I was curious to see how it was,” he said of the scene inside Laver. “You never know what’s happening.”

Sinner’s hesitation was understandable. Nick Kyrgios had been pounding him for the last couple of weeks over his light doping sentence, and the local media Down Under had amplified every one of the Aussie’s words. Who knew whether it had been enough to turn the fans there against the otherwise popular world No. 1.

Yet when Sinner’s name was announced, cheers went up as usual. Some of his hardcore fans stood in their orange suits, while others pulled out carrots to clap with.

“I was happy about the crowd. It was a very nice crowd,” Sinner said. “There were some for my opponent and some for me. It was a nice atmosphere.”

I was curious to see how it was. You never know what’s happening. Jannik Sinner, of his greeting in Rod Laver Arena before his first-round match

Sinner’s opponent, 29-year-old Nicolas Jarry, was another story. Six years ago, the Chilean was suspended for 11 months for his own positive test, before being cleared of wrongdoing. He said he was “annoyed” by Sinner’s light sentence, wished the sport’s doping authorities had supported him the way they supported the No. 1 player, and struggled mentally to face him.

Once he was on court, though, the 6’7”, 34th-ranked Jarry seemed to leave those struggles behind, as he threw everything he could into avenging himself with a victory. A heavy hitter on a normal day, he pounded every ball he saw, and followed as many of them forward as possible. Jarry hit 13 aces and 40 winners (compared to Sinner’s 24), and was 21 of 30 at net. He made 72 percent of his first serves and wasn’t broken until the third set. For two hours, there was very little to separate the two men.

“It was a tough match, as you saw,” Sinner said. “Especially the first couple of sets. Could have gone both ways. But I’m very happy how I handled those situations.”

The situations that Sinner handled best came in the match’s two tiebreakers. That’s when he showed a top player’s knack for manufacturing points out of nothing, of ad libbing the right shot—one you may not have ever seen from him before—at just the right moment.

In the first-set tiebreaker, Sinner won an early point with a slice forehand that drew an error. He won another by improvising a short-hop backhand, from an awkward position, for a winner. In the second-set tiebreaker, he drew two more errors by driving the ball deep and down the middle on one point, and sprinting hard to retrieve what looked like a winning shot from Jarry.

Nothing risky, nothing highlight-worthy, but those points made the difference. Yes, Sinner has the serve-plus-one and the hammer-like ground strokes, but his game is also flexible enough that he can win the toss-up points, the loose-ball points, the ones where both guys are scrambling and desperate.

“He was playing really, really well,” Sinner said of Jarry after his 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-1 win. “I could have also lost the first couple of sets. You never know. But no, how I handled that situations on the court, especially the tiebreaks…It was OK.”

When it comes to expressions of satisfaction, “It was OK” is about as much as you’re going to get from Sinner. When he was asked how he felt about returning to Rod Laver Arena, he said, “It’s a nice place to play some tennis,” as if he was checking out the court at his vacation rental.

Sinner says that, appearances to the contrary, emotions roil him like anyone else. But he also seems to have a useful amount of ice in his veins, and to be built to withstand the kind of pressure and scrutiny that comes with being No. 1, and now with being criticized for a lenient doping decision by his peers. After that millisecond of hesitation before the match, Sinner played exactly the way he always plays, and acted the way he always acts.

When Sinner’s failed test was made public, I thought that he was fortunate to avoid a suspension. But he doesn’t seem as fortunate now. His case is still under appeal from WADA, which is seeking a two-year suspension. He’ll have that hanging over him until his hearing in April; in the meantime, he’ll face the ire of opponents like Jarry.

Asked about the differences between his case and Jarry’s, Sinner said there are differences in everyone’s situations.

“We got treated in the same way,” Sinner said. “There’s the protocol. If the protocol has some issues or problem, then it’s not my fault, you know?”

“I was always judged that I was innocent,” Sinner continued. “The amount I had in my body is less than a billionth of a gram and it was contamination. I don’t know exactly the details what he had.”

Sinner’s loudest critic, Kyrgios, is out of the tournament. With WADA in pursuit, he no longer, at least to me, seems like star player who is going to get off too easily. Hopefully, if he keeps winning, his case will fade and his play will take center stage, where it belongs.