Tennis sensation Jannik Sinner became embroiled in a social media controversy shortly after achieving his first Grand Slam victory. The 22-year-old Italian clinched the Australian Open title on Sunday night and, following discussions with his team, opted to withdraw from the upcoming ATP 250 tournament in Marseille to celebrate in his home country.
However, this decision stirred discontent in France, where Sinner was supposed to be the top seed for the tournament. The official Twitter account of the Open 13 Provence initially criticized Sinner for “snubbing” the event but later replaced the tweet with a more neutral statement, ‘Sinner withdraws,’ in French, after facing backlash from tennis fans.
Organizers of the Open 13 attributed the blunt posts to a newspaper article that had revealed Sinner’s decision not to participate. Subsequently, Australian Open semi-finalist Alexander Zverev is now expected to take Sinner’s place in the tournament draw.
On a different note, a well-known UK radio producer, Katie Bevan of KISS Radio, shared an unexpected encounter with Sinner during a layover in Dubai. Bevan was surprised to see the Italian carrying his Australian Open trophy in a nondescript green bag. She humorously tweeted about the encounter, mentioning that Sinner’s carry-on bag, containing the actual Australian Open trophy, overshadowed the contents of her own airport security tray.
