Jannik Sinner has expressed his dismay over the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) decision to appeal his doping case ruling. Just as he was beginning his victorious US Open 2024 campaign, Sinner faced a doping scandal after testing positive twice for an anabolic agent in March. However, he managed to avoid a ban.
An independent tribunal accepted his defense that the positive test results were due to unintentional contamination.
In a statement released on Saturday, WADA announced, “WADA is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years.”
The detailed WADA appeal reads, “The World Anti-Doping Agency confirms that it has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday, September 26, in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner. He was found by an independent tribunal of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to be free of fault or negligence for testing positive twice for Clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024. WADA believes that the finding of no ‘fault or negligence’ is incorrect under the applicable rules and is therefore seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years. WADA is not seeking a disqualification for any result other than that already imposed by the first instance tribunal. As the matter is now pending before CAS, WADA will not comment further at this time.”
Currently competing in Beijing, Sinner is doing his best to distance himself from the controversy. The Italian tennis star expressed his feelings about the appeal, saying he was ‘very disappointed and also surprised.’
“We can’t control everything. Of course, I’m very disappointed and also surprised about this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings. All three hearings were very positive for me. I didn’t expect that. I knew for a couple of days that they were going to appeal and that today it would become official. Maybe they just want to make sure that everything is in the right place,” he said.
The comment came after his second-round victory over Roman Safiulin in the China Open, where he secured a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win. Sinner is set to face Jiri Lehecka in the next round.
