The day after winning the Cincinnati Open final in prime fashionAnd just hours before he was set to board a flight to New York to play as the top seed at the US Open, young superstar Jannik Sinner finally had to see some bad news go public. On Tuesday, just hours before he was set to board a flight to New York to play as the top seed at the US Open, young superstar Jannik Sinner finally had to see some bad news go public. On Tuesday, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said he was set to board a flight to New York to play as the top seed at the US Open. announced the Sinner twice tested positive for the banned substance clostebol in March 2024; he will be stripped of 400 ranking points from one tournament and $325,000 in prize money, but will not have other results affected or be suspended from the tour, as an independent tribunal ruled he had “no fault or negligence.”
While Sinner’s camp spent the last few months quietly filing urgent appeals and presenting an exoneration story in the sports court – the last hearing also took place during the Cincinnati tournament, and Sinner’s coach, Darren Cahill Said player spoke for six-and-a-half hours on a Zoom call on his day off – news that stunned the wider tennis world. Meanwhile, Sinner, who turned 23 last week, continued his rise to the No. 1 ranking.
Metabolites for the steroid clostebol were found in two urine samples in March. One of these was taken in competition during the semi-finals at Indian Wells and the other was taken out of competition just before winning the title in Miami. Report of the TribunalSinner’s camp quickly and successfully presented their case, allowing him to continue his season more or less as normal, and most of his tournament results were upheld, according to a clause in the Tennis Anti-Doping Protocol that allows a player’s period of ineligibility to be reduced if the player can prove there was “no fault or negligence” on their part.
The story Sinner’s camp has put forward is colorful, but was found credible by independent anti-doping experts consulted by the tribunal, and aside from a few glaringly obvious details, it seems fairly realistic. Even beyond the basic facts, it’s the process itself that has sparked some outrage among Sinner’s colleagues, including players. denis shapovalov And Tara Moore Some have objected to the apparent indulgence and secrecy accorded to Sinner by tennis authorities as he was making his case for his innocence. But this alleged special treatment is in line with what is spelled out in the rulebook. Perhaps it actually reflects how effectively a high-powered and fast-moving legal team can smooth the process; that is the real difference between the world No. 1 and, say, the world No. 301 in similar circumstances.
According to Sinner’s account, his fitness trainer, Umberto Ferrara, went to an Italian pharmacy in February to buy a spray called Trofodermin, not for use on his client, but to treat the wound. (It is unusual in Italy in that it is sold without a prescription, and the tribunal report states that more than half of all anti-doping cases in the country involve clostebol.) When Sinner’s team arrived at the team house in Indian Wells, Sinner’s physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, cut his left little finger on a scalpel while handing in his treatment bag and bandaging the finger. During a physiotherapy session on March 3, Sinner noticed the injury and asked Naldi if he had used anything to treat it. (It’s not the most organic dialogue to imagine, but you can see why his legal team wanted it: to establish that Sinner had done his due diligence.) Naldi said he hadn’t done that, which was true at the time. On March 5, per Ferrara’s suggestion, Naldi began using Trofodermin spray on the cut. Naldi continued Sinner’s treatment for the next eight days, which included full-body massage and foot movements. Sinner’s camp said the player has dermatitis that causes him to scratch and open small open wounds and cuts on his legs and back, increasing the chance of infection through the skin. On the morning of March 10, during competition in Indian Wells, Naldi said he applied the spray, doesn’t remember washing his hands afterward, and treated Sinner; later that day, the first urine sample was collected. On March 18, before the tournament in Miami, a second urine sample was collected.
The three anti-doping experts cited in the report – one hired by the player and two consulted by the ITIA – found the physiotherapist cross-contamination story plausible. One wrote that “the small amount possibly administered would not have had any relevant doping or performance-enhancing effect on the player.” The report also noted that Sinner was tested on average once every month between April 2023 and March 2024, and no other test detected the banned substance. Sinner’s team was able to produce a bank charge to an Italian pharmacy in February that corresponds to Ferrara’s purchase of Trofodermin spray. Naldi appear to In the photos from Indian Wells, his little finger is bandaged. According to the ITIA, a positive test during a competition automatically voids the results of that tournament. Anti-doping protocolsThat is why Sinner was stripped of prize money and ranking points for his participation in the Indian Wells semi-finals. But he managed to avoid a “period of ineligibility”, which would have cancelled other tournament results and prevented him from competing on the Tour in the future, because his story was found to meet this standard: “establishing that (he) did not know or suspect, and could not reasonably have known or suspected, even after exercising the utmost care, that he had used or was administered a prohibited substance or prohibited method or had otherwise committed an anti-doping rule violation.” Sinner was not aware that there was any clostebol on the premises, or that his physiotherapist was using it, or that he was at risk of cross-contamination. He was found to have contracted competent staff who nevertheless made errors in judgment.
Looking back, it’s hard to connect Sinner’s stellar season with the long process that went into it. Cahill, a regular ESPN analyst, went on ESPN Tuesday to coach Sinner. Discuss the matter“If you’re a fan of Jannik, you’ve seen a big change in his body language, his physicality on the court, his enthusiasm to be on the court,” Cahill said. “He’s struggled, and I think it’s drained him physically and mentally. He’s been sick a couple of times. He had tonsillitis, which caused him to miss the Olympics. We’re not expecting any grief or anything, because we’re very grateful there are no restrictions.”
The ITIA report provides clarity on how quickly and thoroughly Sinner’s team engaged counsel and took action. On April 4, Sinner was informed of the results of the first sample and was provisionally suspended; the same day his team gathered evidence and filed an urgent appeal against that suspension at Sport Resolution, which was granted. On April 17, Sinner was informed of the results of the second sample and was provisionally suspended; the same day his team filed an urgent appeal at Sport Resolution, and that appeal was granted on April 24. In between these setbacks of a soon-to-be-revoked provisional suspension, Sinner made the semifinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters and the quarterfinals of the Madrid Masters, but was forced to withdraw from the game due to a hip injury. The ITIA continued its investigation. More paperwork was filed in May and June — as Sinner made the semifinals at Roland-Garros, won a title in Halle and made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon — and in August, a tribunal was formed to decide his case and produce this report. He won the Cincinnati Open less than 24 hours before its release.
During this time, no one in tennis knew what was going on. While other high-profile tennis doping incidents have accustomed fans and players to sporadic bursts of information in real time rather than a delayed announcement of a solution to a problem, the difference is that Sinner’s camp had quickly identified the source of the contamination — “within five minutes,” according to Cahill — and gathered evidence to successfully appeal both provisional suspensions. This prevented any information related to the case from being released at the time those suspensions were first issued. Had either appeal failed, the information would have been made public then. Either way, the information would have become public once the case was over, as journalist Lucia Hoff noted Confirmed In an exchange with ITIA.
earlier this year Another Clostebol incident It involved a fairly low-profile Italian tennis player Marco Bortolotti, and the information was made public only at the conclusion of the case. The protocol was made for the immediate announcement of the provisional suspension Implemented in 2016 amid suspicions of “silent bans” on luxury for top players, to avoid damage to tennis’ reputation. Now we’re seeing that in at least some parts of the sport, absence The public announcement has also raised similar doubts. Cahill said on ESPN that players of different rankings are not treated differently, but that Sinner’s resources as the world’s No. 1 player may have affected his ability to present his case quickly and effectively. Sinner hired a legal team that had experience representing the other side of previous ITIA cases, as well as an independent scientific expert to review the case.
“Players ranked 300, 500, 1,000 in the world, if they get caught in this situation, they don’t have the money – I don’t know how much it would cost them to build their own legal team and bring in experts,” Cahill said. While the rules may be the same on paper, the whole process goes much more smoothly for a top-ranked player who carries his sponsored Gucci, Nike and Rolex gear onto the tennis court.