The bottom line to the settlement announced Saturday morning between the World Anti-Doping Agency and tennis’ top-ranked men’s player, Jannik Sinner, is that his year-long saga is now over with minimal damage to his career.
Sinner, who tested positive for the steroid clostebol at last year’s Indian Wells tournament in California, accepted a three-month ban from WADA as both sides now avoid a hearing that was scheduled for April in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The ban is back dated to begin on Feb. 9 and will expire on May 4. That means Sinner, who won the Australian Open last month, will not miss any Grand Slams and will be eligible to return just in time for the Italian Open in his home country beginning May 7.
From that standpoint, the settlement is a huge win for Sinner. After the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s panel initially ruled last year that there was “no fault or negligence” found in Sinner’s case and did not suspend him, WADA sought a 1-to-2 year ban in its appeal of the case to CAS. Though most experts agreed that Sinner was more likely headed for a far shorter suspension akin to the one he ultimately accepted, an April hearing followed by a ruling weeks later would have imperiled his chances of playing the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Though Sinner will miss an important chunk of the tennis season including Masters 1000-level events at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid, he is far enough ahead of No. 2 Alexander Zverev in the rankings (11,830 points to 8,135) that he could still be No. 1 when he returns.
“This case had been hanging over me now for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year,” Sinner said in a statement Saturday. “I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realize WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love.”
Now, the bad news for Sinner: Many fans, and even some of his fellow players, may see this settlement as an admission of some guilt or wrongdoing — especially given the convenient timing of his suspension.
“Bad day for tennis,” former top-15 player Nick Kyrgios, who has been harshly critical of Sinner, wrote on X.
Three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka wrote, “I don’t believe in a clean sport anymore…” on the same social media app.
The Professional Tennis Players Association, which was founded by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil, also weighed in on X, where it posted a statement criticizing the ATP, WTA, Grand Slams, ITA and WADA.
‘The ‘system’ is not a system. It’s a club,’ the PTPA wrote. ‘Supposed case-by-case discretion is, in fact, merely cover for tailored deals, unfair treatment, and inconsistent rulings. It’s not just the different results for different players. It’s the lack of transparency. The lack of process. The lack of consistency. The lack of credibility in the alphabet soup of agencies charged with regulating our sports and athletes.’
Sinner has maintained since the positive test became public last summer that he did nothing wrong. His explanation, which the ITIA accepted, was that traces of the substance inadvertently entered his system via massage from his fitness trainer Umberto Ferrara. Sinner’s team contended that the trainer had been using a spray to treat a cut on his finger that is available over-the-counter in Italy and contains clostebol.
That explanation was at least partially supported by photos from Indian Wells last year, where the positive test occurred, showing Ferrara with a bandage on his hand.
Still, if true, that would represent at minimum some sloppiness and negligence on the part of Ferrara, which Sinner is responsible for to some degree according to WADA standards. Ferrara is no longer part of Sinner’s team.
It is, however, hard to imagine WADA accepting this short of a ban — and with timing this favorable to Sinner — if they believed there was a strong case against him to present in front of CAS.
What the settlement does accomplish for WADA, however, is a measure of face-saving and precedent-keeping. Though it was highly unlikely for WADA to get a 1- or 2-year ban for Sinner given the publicly available facts of the case, it gets some measure of protection in future cases where an athlete might pass the blame for a positive test onto a member of their staff.
“WADA accepts the athlete’s explanation for the cause of the violation as outlined in the first instance decision,” the organization’s statement said Saturday. “WADA accepts that Mr. Sinner did not intent to cheat, and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as a result of negligence of members of his entourage.
“However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence. Based on the unique set of facts in this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome.”
