The Australian Open 2025: Jannik Sinner hopes to win career grand slam and avoid doping ban

Cherishing his final season with Australian super-coach Darren Cahill, Jannik Sinner has set his sights on a rare grand slam sweep after emphatically defending his Australian Open crown.

Joining the likes of legends Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer in winning their first three grand slam finals is not enough for Sinner, who is also the youngest man to go back-to-back in Melbourne since Jim Courier 32 years ago.

Confident of being cleared of doping at WADA’s appeal in Switzerland in April, Sinner craves even more major spoils.

Should Sinner escape a ban for testing positive to an anabolic steroid last year, which he says was inadvertently applied during a massage, the Italian will arrive in Paris for the French Open in May halfway towards joining Novak Djokovic and Rod Laver as only the third man in the 57-year open era to hold all four grand slam titles simultaneously.’

“I keep playing like this because I have a clear mind on what happened,” Sinner said after his win last night.

“If I know if I would be guilty, I would not play like this, and that’s it.

“I just came off an amazing run again here. I want to enjoy this moment.”

The 23-year-old he was trying not to think about the possibility of not playing this year.

“I still believe every time (the ruling) came out in a very positive way, and I still believe it’s going to be that case,” he said.

“At the moment I’m not thinking about this.

“Of course, you have your moments of certain days where you feel like I wish I would not have this problem.”

While his three majors thus far have all been accrued on hard courts, Sinner proved with runs to the semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year that he also has the game to thrive on clay and grass.

“I really love hard court but, yeah, we are aiming for that,” Sinner told AAP on Monday.

“We are aiming for trying to be as competitive as possible in the other two slams.

“Obviously clay, it’s a bit different than grass and there’s not so much time to adapt to grass after the French Open, but I felt like also last year I had a great run at the French Open.

“I had a good run also in Wimbledon where I played some good tennis, so let’s see what’s coming this year, but for sure that would be something.”

Sinner shocked the tennis world midway through his latest Australian Open title charge when he revealed that 2025 would be his last year working with Cahill, who wants to spend more time with his family in Adelaide.

Cahill has been instrumental in taking Sinner to world No.1 after also guiding Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep to the top of the rankings and grand slam glory.

After conceding in his celebratory speech at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night that he had tried to talk Cahill out of finishing up at year’s end, Sinner opened up on why he and the South Australian were likely moving on in an exclusive interview with AAP on Monday.

Turning 60 this year, Cahill splits his time these days between Adelaide and the US, where his children Ben and Tahlia have been educated, but Sinner hasn’t completely closed the door on the union continuing.

“Coaches, you usually get the best out of them after three or four years. You know, tennis is an evolving sport,” Sinner said.

“You always want to improve as a player, hearing new stuff and sometimes you need new inputs to see a different point of view as a player and I still believe that.

“But he can he can give me something for this year. I still believe that he has been very, very crucial for me.”

Sinner described his relationship with “Killer” Cahill as “special” and said celebrating his Open triumph with his team was “the most beautiful part” of reigning again at Melbourne Park.

“He’s a very humble person, a very nice person - very,” he said.

“I believe that coaching is on court but also off court and he understands me how I am as a person, and he respects all the other team members, me included.

“There are many, many things what makes him very special and I was lucky to get to know him.

“This season is still long, though. It’s not that it stops here fortunately, so we will continue our work for this season for sure and then after we see.

“But I’m very happy that he’s in my team.

“His experience and his calmness, he not only passes on to me but also the whole team and that’s exactly what the team needs.”