Will Off-Court Controversies Overshadow the 2025 Australian Open?

Well, it’s a new year, and it’s a new tennis season, which truly kicks off this weekend with the start of main draw play at the 2025 Australian Open. And while the 2024 tennis off-season felt shorter than usual, a number of stories happening off-court last year could overwhelm the action on the court down in Melbourne, Australia.

It’s not that professional tennis has been immune to off-court drama over the years. But it just feels that lately there isn’t just one issue commanding attention away from the scoreboard, but multiple ones, and they likely aren’t going away anytime soon.

While doping, or the use of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics, is nothing new, especially in tennis, what is new is how there appears to be, at least to many in the sport and those who watch it, an apparent double standard on how the biggest stars are treated when it comes to doping allegations, as compared to lower-ranked players.

That includes World №1 players.

Current ATP Tour World №1 and reigning Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner of Italy continues to battle in the court of public perception over his bombshell announcement back in last August that he had accidentally…