The tennis player Jannik Sinnerworld number one, will be suspended until May 4 after reaching an agreement with the World Anti -Doping Agency (AMA)that he had asked for a suspension of one to two years after the Italian gave positive in clostebol, a prohibited substance.
“According to the terms of the agreement, Sinner will fulfill its period of inelegability from 23h59 of February 9, 2025 until May 4, 2025,” the AMA said in a statement.
The tennis player will miss the 1000 Masters Tournaments of Indian Wells and Miami in March, and Montecarlo and Madrid in April, but no Grand Slam. With 2,000 advantage points over Alexander Zverev (2nd) and more than 4,000 with Carlos Alcaraz (3rd) he could keep number 1 despite his sanction.
Sinner possibly returns in Rome
He will return to the competition predictably at home, to dispute the 1000 Masters of Rome (May 7-18), just before Roland Garros, and “he can return to his official training on April 13,” said La Ama.
“This case plans on me for almost a year and the procedure promised to still be long with a decision perhaps only at the end of the year,” Sinner said in a statement.
“I always accepted the fact that I am responsible for my team. The strict rules of the AMA are an important protection for the sport that I love,” he continued.
“The nightmare ends,” added the Italian Federation (FITP), confirming that it will compete in Rome.
Sinner, 23, was acquitted by the authorities of the tennis After a double positive last March by accepting the player’s explanations, which attributed it to accidental pollution.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) did not announce the case until August and exonerated it by accepting his explanation that his physiotherapist applied a spray with clostebol to heal a wound in his hand and then gave him a massage without gloves.
The AMA resorted to this decision in September and the Arbitral Sports Court (TAS) planned to issue a sentence in April, which will finally occur after the agreement reached.
“I haven’t done anything wrong, that’s why I’m still here. That’s why I’m still playing,” Sinner said during the Australian Open, which won for the second time in a row in January. “In my head I know exactly what happened and that’s how I block it,” he added.
“The AMA accepts that Sinner did not intend to cheat, that his exposure to clostebol did not give him any advantage in terms of improving performance and that it occurred for the negligence of his team members,” said the instance in the statement published this Saturday.
“But according to the code (world anti -doping) and under the jurisprudence of the TAS, an athlete is responsible for the negligence of his team. Based on the unique events of this case, a three -month suspension is considered an appropriate result “The mistress added.
Accusations of favor treatment
The agreement reached with SINER is announced less than a month after the decision of the Ama of not appealing the suspension of one month issued by the ITIA against the number 2 World IGA Swiatek after a positive control by trimetazidine, another prohibited substance.
The late revelation of the positive controls of Sinner and Swiatek, as well as the lightness of their sanctions, caused the anger of other players that estimate that Italian and Polish benefit from a favor treatment.
“Sad day for tennis. Equality does not exist in tennis,” said the controversial Australian player Nick Kyrgios in the social network X.
“I don’t believe in a clean sport anymore,” added the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, winner of three Grand Slam tournaments.
On the case of Sinner, the Legend Novak Djokovic stressed having felt “very frustrated” by not having known the case for five months, the deadline between the positive and the announcement made by the ITIA.
In a statement published this Saturday, the ITIA defended the strength of its decision in the first instance.
“The process was completed with respect to the world anti -doping code and the anti -doping program in tennis. After an in -depth investigation of the ITIA (based on the laboratory councils accredited by the AMA) we were satisfied,” he said, referring to the explanations of the explanations of the explanations of the player.
The agreement announced this Saturday by the Ama “holds these conclusions,” said the ITIA.
