Nick Kyrgios has doubled down on his criticism of Jannik Sinner, after the Wimbledon champion announced that he had rehired his former fitness coach who was involved in the Italian star’s doping case.

Sinner recently parted ways with fitness coach Marco Panichi and physiotherapist Ulises Badio and re-appointed Umberto Ferrara, nearly a year after firing him following the investigation into the Italian’s positive tests for a banned substance.

Kyrgios – who is a vocal critic of doping in tennis – lashed out at Sinner on social media platform X on Thursday morning.

“He got the same doc back,” he wrote on X with a series of potato emojis. “We have been played ladies and gentlemen.”

Sinner’s teams did not give specific reasons for why Ferrara was rehired, other than that “the decision has been made in alignment with Jannik’s management team as part of ongoing preparations for upcoming tournaments” and that he starts with “immediate effect”.

“Umberto has played an important role in Jannik’s development to date, and his return reflects a renewed focus on continuity and performance at the highest level,” they said in a statement on Wednesday.

Last year, the world No.1 tested positive twice for traces of a banned anabolic steroid, which he said had entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

He was ruled by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to bear “no fault or negligence”, but WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, Sinner ended up accepting  a three-month ban for an anti-doping rule violation that did not result in the Italian losing any titles or prizemoney.