Sinner accepts three-month ban in settlement of doping case
Sports
We will be eligible to compete in the next Grand Slam
LONDON (AP) — Top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner has accepted a three-month ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency over his two positive doping tests, the organisation said Saturday.
WADA, which was seeking to ban Sinner from the sport for at least one year, had challenged a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency not to suspend Sinner for what the ITIA judged was accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid last March.
Sinner’s explanation — that trace amounts of Clostebol in his doping sample was due to a massage from a trainer who used the substance after cutting his own finger — had been accepted.
The 23-year-old Italian, who won the Australian Open in January, will be eligible to compete in the next Grand Slam. The French Open begins May 25.
“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,” Sinner said in a statement. “I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realize 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.”
