Jannik Sinner, the world’s No. 1 ranked tennis player, was handed a three-month suspension for his two positive doping tests in 2024, but many in the tennis world are claiming “favoritism” and expressing skepticism with the process, according to 24-Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.
“There’s a majority of the players that I’ve talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also last few months, that are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled,” Djokovick said, while also referring to the one-month suspension women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek served last year.
“The majority of the players don’t feel it’s fair. The majority of the players feel there is favoritism happening. It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you’re a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot. Swiatek and Sinner are innocent unless it’s proven otherwise. Right now they are innocent.
“Sinner’s got a suspension of three months because of the mistakes and the negligence of his team members that are working on the tour. That’s also something that I personally and a lot of players find a bit strange.”
Sinner, who won his third major title last month at the Australian Open, tested positive for Clostebol twice in March 2024. Initially, the International Tennis Integrity Agency found that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence.” Sinner’s explanation was that the substance entered his system by accident through a healing spray. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Italian star was facing a potential ban of one or two years, but WADA withdrew its appeal and came to an agreement for the three-month suspension with Sinner. The world No. 1 is officially suspended from Feb. 9 until May 4.
Although WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel told BBC that Sinner’s case was “a million miles away from doping” because of scientific feedback, the resolution still didn’t sit well with everybody — especially players.
“Either you’re at no fault and you should get no suspension at all. Because if you have no fault, then you have no fault. You shouldn’t get punished,” said world No. 2 Alexander Zverev. “But if you do have fault, then I think for taking steroids, three months is not a suspension.”
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner receives three-month suspension for positive drug tests as part of settlement
Brandon Wise
Meanwhile, world No. 6 Daniil Medvedev said he hopes others get a similar treatment in the future.
“I hope that the next few times, the players will be able to do that. WADA will say, ‘We’ve found that [anti-doping rule violation], you get two years.’ And you say, ‘Well, no, I want one month’,” Medvedev said. “So I hope that it will create a precedent where everyone will have the opportunity to defend themselves better than before. Otherwise, if it’s not going to be possible, it’s going to be bizarre.”
Others have taken a more neutral stance, such as world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.
“The truth is there’s little to say,” Alcaraz said. “Whether he is there or not doesn’t influence us. We remain focused on us and our goals.”
Sinner will not miss any Grand Slams
The specific timing of Sinner’s suspension has raised some eyebrows. Many pointed out that Sinner was practicing in Doha on Feb. 13, which would not be allowed if his ban started on Feb. 9.
However, WADA made the official announcement on Feb. 15, and said Sinner’s period of ineligibility “includes a credit for four days previously served by the athlete while he was under a provisional suspension.”
The Qatar Tennis Federation did share a video of Sinner withdrawing from the Qatar Open and leaving the court because of the ban.
Sinner will be able to return to official training activity on April 13.
Because of the specific timing of the suspension, Sinner will not be missing any Grand Slams. The next one is the French Open on May 25.
Former world No. 4 Tim Henman said the timing “just seems a little bit too convenient.”
Meanwhile, Wenzel told BBC the timing was due to when the decision was made.
“So it happened, because of the timing of the CAS proceedings, it happened to be decided last Friday, it was a very late night, and it came into effect immediately, so that is the reason for the timing,” he said.
‘The process is completely broken’
Regardless of the timing, the biggest controversy is how other cases have been handled. Djokovic brought up the cases of Tara Moore and Simona Halep as examples.
Moore, a British doubles specialist, was banned in May 2022 after testing positive for nandrolone metabolites and Boldenone. It wasn’t until December 2023 that an independent tribunal determined the test results were due to contaminated meat and she bore no fault or negligence.
“At this stage, if all players are treated the same and this is a future precedent, I wouldn’t be bothered, but we all know it won’t be,” Moore said on Monday. “Why can’t we all be treated the same?”
She clarified that she doesn’t think the current situation is Sinner’s fault, but she wants everyone to be treated equally.
Halep, who was ranked world No. 1 in the WTA rankings for 64 weeks, tested positive for Roxadustat in October 2022 and initially received a four-year suspension. In March of 2024, CAS ruled that her positive test was likely resulted from a contaminated supplement, and her ban was reduced to nine months.
This week in reaction to the Sinner case, American star Jessica Pegula said that the system is simply broken.
“It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. It literally doesn’t,” Pegula said. “If you are clean or not, the process is completely broken. I think it needs to be seriously looked at and considered. I feel they have so much power that they can destroy someone’s career, and I think something needs to be done about it because it seems extremely unfair. I don’t think any of the players trust the process at all right now.”
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