Jannik Sinner will arrive in New York on Monday as the men's top seed and one of the leading contenders to win his second Grand Slam title at the US Open. He also does so at the centre of a doping storm that has split the opinion of the tennis world and is now dominating the build-up to the season's fourth and final major tournament.
It was announced on Tuesday that world No 1 Sinner tested positive during Indian Wells in March for low levels of the banned substance clostebol, a steroid that can be used to aid in building muscle mass. A second test was administered eight days later that also tested positive for the same substance.
The 23-year-old Italian was handed an immediate provisional suspension but was allowed to continue playing having successfully challenged the decision. Sinner maintained that he had been contaminated by his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi, who had applied an over-the-counter spray, which contained clostebol, to a cut on his own hand before carrying out treatments on Sinner.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted Sinner's explanation that he had been inadvertently contaminated, with an independent tribunal clearing the Australian Open champion of fault or negligence. A statement from the ITIA revealed less than a billionth of a gram of clostebol was detected in the tests.
Sinner did not escape completely punishment-free as the Italian was stripped of the 400 ranking points he won at Indian Wells and the $325,000 prize money.
“I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me," Sinner said in a statement. "I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping programme and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”
Sinner may be happy to move on, but some of his peers are not. Former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios suggested he is not buying the explanation and was left bemused at the lack of a lengthy suspension.
“Ridiculous - whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance ... you should be gone for 2 years,” Kyrgios wrote on X. “Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream ... Yeah nice.”
Former world No 10 Denis Shapovalov directed his ire at the authorities for a lack of consistency. Perhaps the most famous doping case in tennis history involved Maria Sharapova, one of the sport's biggest stars who in 2016 tested positive for meldonium, a substance that had been recently added to the banned list. On appeal, she was found not to have intentionally doped and was cleared of fault but was still banned for 15 months.
“Can’t imagine what every other player that got banned for contaminated substances is feeling right now,” Shapovalov wrote on X. “Different rules for different players.”
Meanwhile, British player Liam Broady criticised the lack of due process, which allowed Sinner to continue playing for the past five months while the investigation was underway when typically players serve provisional suspensions.
“Whether Sinner was doping or not. This is not right," Broady wrote on X. "Plenty of players go through the same thing and have to wait months or years for their innocence to be declared. Not a good look.”
Sinner did find an ally in John Millman, with the Australian posting on social media: “Before jumping to conclusions, Jannik Sinner had less than a billionth of a gram in his system. I believe him 100 per cent ... maybe we should change threshold [to] cater for contamination."
It is Broady's point that is most worth addressing. Whether Sinner intentionally doped or not – and, without knowing all the facts, the miniscule amount of detected clostebol suggests he didn't – the Italian has been free to compete, collect ranking points, and earn money when many others have served bans in similar situations.
Between the failed tests at Indian Wells in March and the conclusion of the investigation this week, Sinner has played eight ATP tournaments, participated in the Olympic Games, won three titles, collected 4,500 ATP points, and earned almost $4.5 million. Without those points, the Italian would have slipped to world No 5 and would enter next week's US Open as the fifth seed, theoretically handing him a more challenging route to the final.
Instead, it would have been world No 2 Novak Djokovic and third-ranked Carlos Alcaraz – separated by just 100 points – who would have been jostling for the top ranking ahead of the US Open. Spare a thought also for Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz, and Frances Tiafoe, who were respectively beaten in the Miami, Halle, and Cincinnati finals by Sinner, denying them trophies and precious ranking points shortly before Grand Slams.
The ATP will, of course, not want this saga to be the main focus in the lead-up to the US Open as a season that has witnessed a clear changing of the guard, centrally involving Sinner, edges towards its conclusion. However, Sinner's perceived preferential treatment has shone a renewed light on the alleged inconsistencies of the ITIA, and given the Italian's status as the world's best player, it will be an unwelcome distraction in New York.
