Sinner, three-month ban for two positive tests with clostebol

Jannik Sinner will be off the tennis courts for three months. The doping scandal involving the world number 1 last year has resulted in a three-month ban. This penalty will allow the Italian tennis player to participate in the Rome Masters 1000, the only one on Italian soil, and in Roland Garros, the second Grand Slam of the year, starting on May 19.

Sinner, according to the BBC, accepted the immediate punishment after reaching an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for his two positive doping tests last year. Consequently, the world number one, who won the Australian Open a few weeks ago, will miss the tournaments between February 9, when the suspension began, and May 4, missing the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, and Madrid.

Despite testing positive in March 2024, the tennis player's case was not publicly known until August of the same year. WADA accepts his explanation that he was contaminated with clostebol by his physiotherapist, whom he dismissed after the scandal, and acknowledges that Sinner "had no intention to cheat," that the substance "did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit," and that this occurred "without his knowledge as a result of negligence by members of his entourage."

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) decided to strip him of the points and prize money won at Indian Wells, the tournament where he tested positive, but maintained the Italian's innocence, approving the theory that he was contaminated by an ungloved massage from his former physiotherapist, who allegedly used a spray to treat a finger injury, explaining the presence of clostebol, in a minimal amount, in his body.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed this decision to the ITIA, intending to hold Sinner accountable as the head of his technical team, seeking a suspension of one to two years.