Jannik Sinner holds ‘responsibility’ for positive doping test claims WADA Director General
Jannik Sinner will have to wait until 2025 to hear the outcome of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) appeal against his doping case, with the organisation’s Director General Olivier Niggli claiming that the Italian holds ‘responsibility in relation to his entourage’.
Sinner has been the dominant men’s singles player this year, winning a tour-leading eight titles including the Australian Open and the US Open.
This has enabled the 23-year-old to end the year as World No.1 for the first time in his career, with Sinner joining Roger Federer as the only player’s in the Open Era to go a whole season without losing a single straight sets match.
However, it has not all been plain-sailing for Sinner this year, who is currently facing an ongoing battle after he failed two anti-doping tests within the space of eight days back in March.
Sinner was found to have a small dosage of the prohibited substance clostebol in his system earlier this year, but was allowed to continue playing after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) found him to have ‘no fault or negligence’ on the grounds of contamination.
This came about after Sinner claimed that the positive test came as a result of a massage from former physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi, who had used a cream containing clostebol prior to the treatment.
The case took another turn back in September, when WADA announced that they would be lodging an appeal against the ITIA’s decision.
It is currently unclear as to when an outcome for this appeal will be heard, but aforementioned WADA director Niggli has confirmed that it will not be until 2025.
“There will be nothing by the end of the year,” Niggli told French news outlet AFP. “The decision was made that Sinner was not at fault. Our position is that there is still a responsibility of the athlete towards those around him. So it is this legal point that will be discussed at the CAS.”
WADA appeals case of tennis player Jannik Sinner. Read more here: https://t.co/vExHGdmkZG
— WADA (@wada_ama) September 28, 2024
At the time of announcing their appeal, WADA revealed that they were seeking a ban of one to two years for Sinner, and now Niggli has expanded on why this is their stand.
“It was considered in the decision that there was no fault on the part of Sinner. Our position is that there is still a responsibility of the athlete in relation to his entourage,” continued Niggli. “So it is this legal point that will be debated.
“We do not dispute the fact that it could have been a contamination. But we believe that the application of the rules does not correspond to the case law.”
Sinner will find out the outcome of WADA’s appeal next year when the case is decided at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Inside the baseline…
It has been such a contrasting year for Jannik Sinner, who has had such a phenomenal year on the court, but a very tumultuous one away from it. Unsurprisingly WADA seem confident in their case for an appeal, but likewise Sinner also believes that he is completely innocent of any wrongdoing and should be able to avoid any sort of ban. It all feels very up in the air at the moment, with a date yet to be announced for an outcome of the appeal.
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