The shadow hanging over Sinner and Swiatek's glory

A tradition once discarded but now an annual convention, the dance between the men's and women's singles champions took place at the Wimbledon Ball on Sunday night. Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, two natural introverts, smiled and laughed their way through a shake and a twirl at the Raffles London hotel in Whitehall. It was an endearing sight.

- KIERAN JACKSON AT WIMBLEDON

Both were well-deserved first-time champions at the All England Club in their respective finals over the weekend. Sinner downed his arch rival and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, five weeks on from his French Open heartbreak, while Swiatek claimed the first double bagel in a Wimbledon final in 114 years.

But both, inescapably, had an elephant lurking in the corner of the ballroom.

Last year, to the shock of the sporting world, Sinner and Swiatek failed drug tests. Sinner twice tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol, first at the Indian Wells Masters tournament in March 2024 and then in an out-of-competition sample eight days later.

The case was only made public four months later, prior to the US Open, when the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) cleared Sinner of any wrongdoing. By February of this year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) entered a “case resolution agreement” with Sinner, handing him a three-month suspension. Sinner accepted the offer, keen to avoid a lengthy legal battle.