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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]With Roland-Garros on the horizon, most tennis fans are scanning for appetizing early-round matchups or debating Naomi Osaka’s bold stance against the archaic press conference. I’m still pondering whether an Italian superstar-in-waiting has figured out how to use the toilet. Jannik Sinner is no stranger to toilet-based controversy. He was, after all, standing on the opposite side of the net in Melbourne when Denis Shapovalov beseeched the umpire for a bathroom break, threatening to “piss in a bottle” and “piss my pants” during their first-round Australian Open match. That plea didn’t work; Shapovalov only got his wish at the next changeover. He got the win, too. Maybe it was this experience that inspired Sinner to try his own hand at some ill-fated bathroom-related high jinks In Lyon last week. Aslan Karatsev kicked off their first-round match with a 6–0 set, and Sinner, looking for some time to digest that bagel, asked the umpire if he could use the toilet. He left the court. Karatsev stalked around on the clay and squatted up and down to stay warm. When Sinner returned some four minutes later to resume play, he was waylaid by the supervisor, and then by the umpire, and then the line umpire showed up too, to chat about something. At the end of it all, Sinner was issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. Something about that toilet break just wasn’t right.