Breaking news in tennis: Sinner accepts three-month suspension

After reaching an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over his double positive test for clostebol, Jannik Sinner will be unable to compete until May 4 2025.

As announced this Saturday, both the organization and the Italian athlete agreed to a three-month suspension, thus canceling the hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that was scheduled for April.

Which tournaments will Jannick Sinner miss?

The Italian will be unable to compete in two events next month and three in April: Indian Wells, the Miami Open, Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, the Barcelona Open and the Madrid Open. He should be available for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome after serving his suspension.

Initially, the WADA was going to request a sanction of one to two years. Ultimately, the punishment for the world number one will be much lighter, allowing him to participate in all of this season’s Grand Slam tournaments. This unexpected outcome has had a significant global impact, with immediate reactions from around the world. Sinner himself spoke out just hours after the news broke.

“I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and I recognize that WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On this basis, I have accepted the offer to resolve this procedure with a three-month sanction,” Sinner explained in a statement shared by his team.

In it, the world number one spoke of “partial responsibility” for the mistakes made and highlights that the WADA “concluded that there was no intention or competitive advantage gained from the two positive results detected in my system.”

Sinner maintains his innocence in doping charges

This nuanced mea culpa aligns with everything experienced during the process, in which Sinner has consistently defended his innocence. Despite the suspension, the WADA also believes in the validity of the explanations, which were also accepted by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).

The ITIA only punished the Italian by stripping him of the prize money and points earned at Indian Wells, the tournament where the double positive occurred. In his initial defense, Jannik, who was provisionally suspended for four days without public knowledge, argued that the presence of clostebol was due to unintentional contamination.

According to his version, the substance entered his body because his physiotherapist was using a product containing it on a cut on his finger. Shortly after, he dismissed both his physical trainer (Umberto Ferrara) and his physiotherapist (Giacomo Naldi).

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