Sinner returns from doping ban to great fanfare at Italian Open

ROME (AP) — Rarely has an athlete been welcomed back from a doping ban with so much fanfare.

Top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner was treated to a stadium filled with nearly 5,000 fans for his first practice session at the Italian Open on Monday — the day his three-month banishment from the sport expired.

The training session — which was shown live on local TV — came after Sinner was the most celebrated player in a ceremony to honor the Italian teams that swept the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup last year.

Both trophies were on hand and the Campo Centrale crowd belted out Italy’s national anthem.

It's the first time that Italy has had a No. 1 player for its home tournament. Still, Sinner was at a loss to explain why he attracts so much attention.

“I don’t know. Honestly, I think I’m a simple 23-year-old kid. I’m good at playing tennis but I’m not changing the world,” he said. “I always remember that I come from a small town of 2,000 people. Being here in Rome and playing in front of so many people is a big deal.”

With a conclave to elect a new pope set to begin just down the road at the Vatican on Wednesday, Sinner’s return prompted local headlines that declared “Habemus Sinner” — a variant of the Latin words “Habemus Papam!” that are announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica when a pope is elected.

The scene at the Foro Italico came in sharp contrast to how Sinner felt back in February when he received a three-month ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“At the start I was a bit confused because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” Sinner said. “Then I went home and stayed with my family. I tried to understand better what was really important to me.

“I know how many sacrifices I made and my daily routine was always practice, practice, practice. But at that moment I didn’t have any of that. I came to understand that what’s important to me are the people by your side. That they give you the strength to move forward and continue smiling.”

Besides his family in the German-speaking Alto Adige region of northern Italy, Sinner also spent more time with friends at home in Monaco, participated in other sports like cycling, and then only gradually came back to tennis.

“We went about a month without touching (a racket) and then we restarted really softly,” Sinner said. “When we started pushing more, blisters developed on my hands. That was something I hadn’t experienced in a long time.”

The settlement was made after WADA appealed a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to fully exonerate Sinner for what it deemed to be an accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid in March 2024.

The settlement raised questions, since it conveniently allowed Sinner not to miss any Grand Slams and return at his home tournament.

The Italian Open is the last big clay-court event before the French Open, which starts on May 25.

“I didn’t want to do it in the beginning, and also it was a bit not easy for me to accept it, because I know what really happened,” Sinner said of the ban. “But sometimes we have to choose the best in a very bad moment, and that’s what we did. So it’s all over now. So I’m happy to play tennis again.”

Many fellow pros feel Sinner was treated too lightly.

Serena Williams told Time magazine she “would have gotten 20 years” if she was involved in a similar case: “Let’s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me.”

“I just arrived 45 minutes ago," Sinner said. "I haven’t seen so many (other players). It’s all fine at the moment, but I haven´t seen most of them.”

Sinner hasn’t played a match since January when he won his second straight Australian Open title.

After a first-round bye in Rome, he will be play his opening match on Saturday against No. 99 Mariano Navone or 18-year-old Italian wild card Federico Cinà.

The last Italian man to win the Rome title was Adriano Panatta in 1976.

“It’s a very, very low expectation tournament in general for me,” Sinner said. “It’s a very strange feeling again in the beginning to be around so many people and attention. But it’s nice to be back.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Jannik Sinner attends a training ahead of the Italian Open in Rome, Monday, May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Jannik Sinner attends a training ahead of the Italian Open in Rome, Monday, May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Jannik Sinner attends a training ahead of the Italian Open in Rome, Monday, May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Jannik Sinner speaks during a press conference ahead of the Italian Open, in Rome, Monday May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Jannik Sinner speaks during a press conference ahead of the Italian Open, in Rome, Monday May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Jannik Sinner attends a press conference ahead of the Italian Open, in Rome, Monday May 5, 2025. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - Italy's Jannik Sinner reacts after losing a point during his match against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Italian Open tennis tournament, in Rome, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

FILE - Jannik Sinner of Italy celebrates after defeating Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, File)

FILE - Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning a point to Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas during their match at the Italian Open tennis tournament, in Rome, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)