Jannik Sinner has accepted a three-month World Anti-Doping Agency ban over the clostebol case, running February 9-May 4, the WADA said Saturday, saying he had not meant to dope and got no edge from the banned substance.
The world tennis number one, 23, had been cleared by a lower court after it found that he had inadvertently been tainted with the banned steroid by a trainer's massage at the Indian Wells tournament last March, but WADA reopened the case and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) where it had been seeking a ban of up to two years.
WADA said "that it has reached an agreement for the resolution of the case of the Italian tennis player, who accepted a three-month period of ineligibility for a violation of the doping rule that led to a positive test for clostebol, a banned substance, in March 2024".
The short ban means that Sinner will be able to pursue his dream to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to achieve a yearly grand slam by becoming re-eligible before the French Open which starts at Roland Garros on May 19, when the ban will have been served. Indeed, he will be able to play the Italian Open as a warm-up tourney, and restart training in mid-April.
South Tyrolean Sinner, who retained his Australian Open title last month and also won last year's US Open, said: "This case has been hanging over me for almost a year now and the process still had a long time to go with a decision that perhaps would only come at the end of the year.
"I have always accepted to be responsible for my team and I believe that WADA's strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On this basis I accepted WADA's offer to resolve this case on the basis of a three-month sanction".
Italian Tennis Federation President Angelo Binaghi said the Italian tennis world and the whole of Italy would give him "the welcome he deserves" when he returns for the Italian Open from May 7-13.
"It is the first time that a shameful injustice makes us happy because the first thought is for the lad who sees a nightmare come to an end", he said.
"This agreement between the two parties certifies Jannik's innocence, his absolute non-guilt, and finally allows him to calm down and plan his future with a great return to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome where all of Italy will welcome him as he deserves".
"There remains the regret for everything he had to go through and for all the time Jannik had to spend with this burden." Not everyone was happy, however.
Sinner's leading critic Nick Kyrgios said he was dismayed at the ban, saying it was "a bad day for tennis." Since last year, the 29-year-old Aussie player and pundit has been the harshest critic of the Italian tennis player for whom he had hoped for a long disqualification.
Kyrgios on Saturday relaunched an attacking post on Sinner that underlined how other champions such as Dan Evans, Simona Halep, Nicholas Jarry, and Beatrice Hadad Maia have served major disqualifications for doping cases.
"The rules are rules unless you are a puppet of the system", said the fiery Australian.
The lower court, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) had defended its decision to clear Sinner over two failed tests at Indian Wells.
On August 20, ITIA announced that Sinner had twice tested positive for clostebol in March 2024, but it cleared him of deliberate use.
Sinner said his trainer, who he has since fired, accidentally applied the substance to him after treating a cut with a cream.
Following the agreement with WADA, Sinner will be able to return to the field for a competition on May 4, 2025, the agency specified Saturday, also noting that following the agreement, the appeal to CAS was "formally withdrawn".
Due to the ban, Sinner will miss four Masters 1000s (Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid).
Despite this, Sinner has his world no. 1 status guaranteed until the start of the clay season.
WADA acknowledged that Sinner "had no intent to cheat and that his exposure to Clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing advantage".
"It occurred without his knowledge as a result of the negligence of members of his entourage" but "under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete is liable for the negligence of his entourage".
The news of the agreement between WADA and Sinner opened the pages of the main sports websites of newspapers around the world.
Most of the comments simply reported the news. "Sinner suspended for three months", writes L'Equipe, which more than any other media outlet in recent years has celebrated the successes of the South Tyrolean tennis player, also calling him "Sinnerminator".
"The world number one suspended for three months", writes the BBC without mentioning Sinner, while the Daily Telegraph, after reporting the ban, points out that "the world number 1 will be able to play in the Slam tournaments".
The Spanish and German websites were harsher. "Tennis star Sinner suspended for doping!", headlines Bild, which attacked the Italian on the eve of the Australian Open final between Sinner and German tennis player Alexander Zverev.
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