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In the end, Jannik Sinner will serve a three-month suspension for his 2024 positive tests for a banned substance.
That brings to an end nearly six months of debate and speculation about the case, which was unusual on many levels.
Open Court called it, exactly, months ago (just for the record, although we framed it in terms of the eventual CAS decision, not a case resolution).
The news came down early Saturday morning – this would be considered even more of a dump than the traditional “Friday news dump”.
The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has entered ino a settlement agreement with Sinner to serve a three-month suspension, and dropped the appeal it had lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
His suspension began Feb. 9 at midnight and will run through to May 4, with a four-day credit for the days Sinner was suspended provisionally, after two positive tests for minute amounts of the banned substance Clostebol back in March, 2024.
“Mr. Sinner may return to official training activity from 13 April 2025, the statement read (although obviously he’s free to train unofficially).
The statement from SInner:
“The case had been hanging over me now for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run, with a decision maybe only at the end of the year,” Sinenr said. “I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On that basis I hav acceptaed WADA’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a 3-month sanction.”
It doesn’t go unnoticed that the four-day backdating (which may well be because the agreement was reached that day, although we don’t know for sure), conveniently allows Sinner to be reinstated JUST in time to play his home ATP 1000 event in Rome, which officially begins May 7.
That said, when Maria Sharapova was reinstated from her doping suspension in 2017, the suspension officially ended on April 26 even though the tournament she returned in – with the title sponsor in Stuttgart also her title sponsor – began on April 24. But they arranged for her not to have to play until Wednesday – not sneakily so, but still. So the same could have been true here with Sinner the top seed with a first-round bye, and not required to play until the Friday at the earliest.
WADA had filed the appeal with the CAS last Sept. 28, disputing the finding of no-fault by an independant tribunal convened by ITIA, the body that adjudicates the anti-doping system for the various governing bodies of tennis.
It was to be heard on April 16-17.
And before you ask: yes, case resolution is not uncommon in the WADA process, as laid out in this section of its charter.
WADA was calling for a suspension of between one and two years, in line with the “no significant fault” they judged to be the appropriate outcome rather than the finding of “no fault” issues by the ITIA’s independant tribunal.
There was no guarantee, of course, that the CAS would see it the same way WADA did. While most of the appeals to the CAS are made by players to reduce or eliminate their anti-doping bans – and not one governing body appealing another’s decision to increase one – their decisions, more often than not, have led to the reduction of ITIA suspension decisions and not increased them.
They might well have come to the same decision, but after two more months of suspense and significant costs to get the relevant parties together for the hearing.
Or not; we’ll never know.
“No-fault” ruling at issue
WADA accepted Sinner’s explanation of how the Clostebol got into his system. Indeed, so did ITIA; the explanation was provided in short order after the first positive test in early March, 2024 – that Sinner’s now-former trainer Giacomo Naldi had used Trifodermin, an antiseptic spray available in Italy to treat a cut on his finger (which contained the banned substance) for a number of days. And in effectuating treatment like massages on Sinner with his bare hands, the substance had entered Sinner’s system in a minute quantity.
That explanation, deemed plausible, was the reason Sinner’s appeal of his provisional ban was accepted – a fairly rare occurrence. And it was also the reason the positive test/provisional ban was not publicly announced.
That led to many online conspiracy theories about a cover-up, although in fact it conformed exactly to ITIA’s outlined procedures.
By the time the hearing process was completed in August, the independant tribunal decided that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” in the the case, and therefore issued no suspension.
WADA, the world organization that oversees anti-doping in sport, quite rightly had issues with Sinner getting off with not even a slap on the wrist.
Its issue with that decision was this:
“WADA accepts the athlete’s explanation for the cause of the violation as outlined in the first instance decision. WADA accepts that Mr. Sinner did not intend to cheat, and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage. However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence. Based on the unique set of facts of this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome.”
The ranking points and prize money from the 2024 Indian Wells tournament, which was where the first of Sinner’s two positive tests (the other came eight days later, but the two were considered as one instance) were struck at the time. WADA’s intention was never to seek the disqualification of any additional results.
I don’t believe in a clean sport anymore …
— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) February 15, 2025
What it means
The online conspiracies likely will not abate with this decision – which, of course, works out relatively nicely in terms of Sinner not having to sit out a Grand Slam tournament.
It’s convenient that the timing of the three-month suspension comes after the Australian Open, which Sinner won for the second straight year and before Roland Garros, which begins in mid-May.
Precedents will be cited, comparables parsed (in some fashion). But it is a rather unique case in that the original decision of “no-fault” was no suspension, and the appeal wanted to take that in the opposite direction of most appeals, which seek a reduction.
Sinner will, however, miss Indian Wells (where he has been a semifinalist the last two years) and Miami, which he won a year ago after reaching the final in 2023. He also won’t be able to play Monte Carlo or Madrid, two more Masters 1000 events.
Since his points from Indian Wells were struck with the suspension, that means he will be unable to defend 1,600 points during the period of the suspension.
He would, however, be able to play the Rome Masters, which he didn’t play a year ago. His “home” Masters, as it happens, where he will return to action no doubt to a delirious reception.
Sinner’s lead over No. 2-ranked Alexander Zverev is nearly 3,700 points, so he likely won’t be in danger of losing the top spot in the rankings any time soon.
He will potentially miss out on several million dollars in potential earnings from those tournaments, though. And Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz will be able to narrow that gap.
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What is official vs unofficial training?
These suspensions means you can’t play tournaments, or train on a tournament site, or even be ON an officially sanctioned tournament site.
Nothing stops him from going to the club in Monte Carlo to train with his team (as long as it’s not during the tournament).
I’d have to look it up, but I suspect that built-in to these suspensions is “permission” to start training again in an “official” way, say, three weeks before the suspension ends and they can return? Something like that.
Thanks for the explanation!