The tennis world is no stranger to surprises, and the one we have this time one has everyone scratching their heads. The ATP Award nominations for 2024 dropped on November 25, sparking plenty of chatter. But amidst the excitement, one glaring omission has left fans and experts stunned—Jannik Sinner and his coach Darren Cahill didn’t even make the list! It’s a jaw-dropper, especially considering Sinner’s blockbuster season. And now, Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, is failing to hold back.

The Italian tennis dynamo’s name remains absent in all four categories, the list of which has been making rounds on social media. The most surprising of all was the absence of Sinner’s name under the ‘Most Improved Player of the Year’ nominations and the ‘Sportsmanship Award’ nominations. But what’s more interesting is the fact that Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill also failed to find his name under the Coach of the Year category. The shortlisted coaches are Xavier Malisse (coach of Alexei Popyrin), Emmanuel Planque (coach of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard), Michael Russell (coach of Taylor Fritz), Brad Stine (coach of Tommy Paul), and James Trotman (coach of Jack Draper). This does not seem to sit well with Gilbert who clearly expressed his disappointment.

Taking to X, Gilbert commented on a post detailing the nominations for the ATP Awards and questioned, “Where is for coach of year team Sin City 🌆.” In another post, where a fan asked him about his opinion on Cahill’s exclusion, Gilbert replied, “i thought 💭 he was should be fairly obvious.” This surprise is quite justified given the stellar season that Sinner has witnessed this year. 

The 23-year-old clinched 8 titles this season including two Grand Slams at the Australian Open and the US Open. Besides, he improved his win-loss ratio with 73 victories against only 6 defeats this season taking his win percentage to 92.4. Additionally, Jannik Sinner was also part of Italy’s Davis Cup team and led his team to victory in the tournament. In all his endeavors, his coach stood by his side guiding him through thicks and thins. Hence, the exclusion of both Sinner and his coach has left many disappointed. 

Interestingly, Gilbert is not the only person to express such a surprise and some experts even believe that this exclusion is due to the doping controversy which Sinner faced.

Former player links Jannik Sinner’s exclusion from ATP Awards to his doping saga

Jannik Sinner’s remarkable season indeed deserved more accolades and honors. However, the absence of his name along with his coach in the ATP Award Nominations has left huge disappointment among the fans and experts. Sharing a similar view is former German star Andrea Petkovic.

Petkovic engaged in an interview with Rennae Stubbs for the latter’s ‘The Rennae Stubbs podcast’ and expressed her surprise over Sinner’s exclusion. She believes that the exclusion was due to the doping controversy. “I think they are basically protecting themselves from a situation that he has the sportsmanship award Darren has the coach of the year award and then he gets banned for a couple of months,” she said. Continuing further, she added, “I think its just self-protection. They just want to protect themselves,” the former German player said.

Sinner tested positive twice for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol during Indian Wells. While the initial ITIA ruling went in his favor, he has continued to receive backlash and now, WADA has filed an appeal against him in the Court of Arbitration for Sports, a decision on which is still awaited. Experts believe that it is due to this reason that the ATP has not nominated Sinner or his coach for the awards. 

For now, it would be interesting to see if Jannik Sinner or Darren Cahill will themselves come forward to express a similar discontent.