World No. 1 Jannik Sinner has agreed to a three-month ban from tennis for violating anti-doping rules, effectively immediately.
Sinner, who won the Australian Open last month, was sanctioned in August with minimal penalty after two positive tests for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid. At the time, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said the 23-year-oid Italian was not at fault.
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the ITIA ruling the following month, and a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport was set for April. The agreement between the Sinner camp and the agency cancels the hearing.
Sinner’s will not be allowed to return to competition until May 4 and may begin training on April 13.
The samples the Italian submitted at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells on March 10 and March 18 contained low levels of the prohibited substance clostebol, violating anti-doping rules, according to an independent tribunal appointed by Sport Resolutions.
However, it was found that clostebol entered Sinner’s system through a third party. A support team member who had been using an over-the-counter spray that contained the substance to treat his own wound passed it on to Sinner through therapy performed without gloves.
In a statement issued Saturday morning, Sinner said he is glad the settlement puts an end to the issue.
“This 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,” he 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 have accepted WADA’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a 3-month sanction.”
The timing of the ban means Sinner will miss back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami in March, and in Monte Carlo and Madrid in April. But he will be eligible to return to the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome in his home country, which begins May 7.
Two more clay-court events follow before the French Open begins May 25, meaning he won’t miss any of the Grand Slam tournaments this season.
“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,” the organization said in a statement.
“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.”
At the time of the ITIA ruling, Sinner lost the ranking points and the $325,000 he earned for his semifinal finish at Indian Wells last spring but was not banned from competition — a decision that did not sit well with some at the time.
Or on Saturday.
Australian Nick Kyrgios, a harsh critic last summer, wrote on social media Saturday that Sinner’s team had done “everything in their power to just go ahead and take a 3 month ban, no titles lost.”
“Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist,” Kyrgios posted to X.
“So wada come out and say it would be a 1-2 year ban. Obviously sinners team have done everything in their power to just go ahead and take a 3 month ban, no titles lost, no prize money lost. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist.”
Sinner is 7-0 this season and was 73-6 in 2024, winning eight of his 19 career titles, including the Australian Open, the U.S. Open and the Nitto ATP Finals.
–Field Level Media
