The familiar face of Emma Raducanu is in New York and is “inspired” to be back where she won her first and only slam.

Back in 2021, tennis may have provided arguably Britain’s sporting highlight of the 2020s so far as Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a grand slam with her US Open triumph.

Throughout this summer, the British No 2 has spoken about finding the joy in tennis again, which had been difficult for so long. The results she has compiled over the past four months back up those sentiments. Raducanu has reached the quarter-finals or better at four of her past six tour events, had a run to the fourth round of Wimbledon and a defining role in Great Britain’s win over France on clay in the Billie Jean King Cup.

I feel very proud when I come here. Walking past my photo every day. Walking past my name on the trophy every day. I think that is such an epic achievement and these two weeks, I completed it. I come back with such a different outlook. Just joy and pride and it inspires me to want to do more.

While Sinner has said he did not receive preferential treatment, many disagree a sentiment that Novak Djokovic can “understand”. The Serbian has called for anti-doping rules to change in light of the recent case against Sinner.

We see a lack of standardised and clear protocols. I can understand the sentiments of a lot of players that are questioning whether they are treated the same. Hopefully the governing bodies of our sport will be able to learn from this case and have a better approach for the future. Collectively there has to be a change, and I think that’s obvious.

Many players – without naming any of them [as] I’m sure you know already who – have had similar or pretty much the same cases, where they haven’t had the same outcome. And now the question is whether it is a case of the funds, whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount of money for a law firm that would then more efficiently represent his or her case. I don’t know. Is that the case or not? That’s something really I feel like we have to collectively investigate more.

Carlos Alcaraz responded with caution when asked about his rival’s positive test:

In the end, they’ve declared him innocent and he’s in the tournament. I think there’s not much more to talk about and at least I don’t have much to say. It’s something that is talked about [in the locker room].

As mentioned, Sinner has been the word on everyone’s lips. The Italian has had an explosive year, winning his first slam in Melbourne in January and soaring to world No 1 during the French Open.

The Italian faced the media for the first time since the results came to light last week in New York. While the moderator tried to shut down questions about the topic after only one was asked, Sinner seemed happy to respond at length to all the questions and was fully engaged with his questioners.

I had to play already months with this in my head, but just [reminding] myself that I haven’t done really anything wrong. I always respect these rules, and I always will respect these rules of anti-doping. Just obviously a relief for myself having this result.

Every player who gets tested positive has to go through the same process. There is no shortcut, there is no different treatment, they are all the same process.

Sinner will begin his US Open campaign against the US’s Mackenzie McDonald, who is ranked 119 in the world.

Preamble