Jannik Sinner, the world’s number one male tennis player, will head to the US Open with his steroid scandal behind him.
Sinner, who twice tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid earlier this year, will not be suspended. The International Tennis Integrity Agency said Tuesday that the banned substance he tested positive for entered his system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that Sinner was “not at fault.”
Although he will still lose the ranking points and prize money he received at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, which he was competing in when he first tested positive, Sinner will avoid suspension.
“I will now put this difficult and deeply unhappy time behind me,” Sinner said in a statement he shared on Instagram. “I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the ITIA anti-doping program and I have a team around me who are meticulous in their own compliance.”
Sinner first tested positive in Indian Wells in March for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol, which is the same anabolic steroid used by the San Diego Padres star. Fernando Tatis Jr. suspended 80 games in Major League Baseball in 2022. Tatis and his father claimed it came from contaminated ringworm medicine.
Sinner then tested positive a second time eight days later after the tournament and was provisionally suspended. However, he appealed this decision and was allowed to continue competing.
The ITIA said in a statement that the positive test was “the result of contamination by a member of the support team, who had applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to his own skin to treat a small wound “. This was then passed on to Sinner through “daily massages and sports therapy.”
“Anti-doping rules must be very strict to be effective,” Sinner’s lawyer, Jamie Singer, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the unfortunate consequence is that sometimes completely innocent athletes end up in it. There is no doubt that Jannik is innocent in this case. The ITIA has not disputed this key principle. However, under strict liability rules, Jannik is responsible for everything in his system, even if he is completely unaware of it, as in this exceptional case.
Sinner took first place in the world rankings for the first time in his career in June. The 23-year-old won the Australian Open in January, which marked his first Grand Slam title, and he beat Frances Tiafoe to win the Cincinnati Open title on Monday. Sinner has reached the semifinals at Roland Garros and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon this season, and he is ranked at +200 – even with Novak Djokovic and slightly behind Carlos Alcaraz – to win the US Open. on BetMGM.
“We are encouraged that no fault or negligence was found on the part of Jannik Sinner,” the ATP Tour said in a statement. via associated press. “We also wish to recognize the robust investigation process and independent assessment of the facts under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP), which allowed him to continue to compete.
“This has been a challenge for Jannik and his team and highlights the need for players and those around them to exercise the utmost caution in using products or treatments. Integrity is paramount in our sport.”
