Jannik Sinner’s three-month doping ban isn’t sitting right with some in the tennis world.
Australian star Nick Kyrgios ripped the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), claiming Sinner got off easy with the monthslong suspension over his two positive drug tests.
“So [WADA] come out and say it would be a 1-2 year ban,” Kyrgios wrote on X. “Obviously sinners team have done everything in their power to just go ahead and take a 3 month ban, no titles lost, no prize money lost. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist.”
WADA had previously been seeking to ban Sinner from tennis for at least one year.
And Kyrgios was far from alone.
Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka also took to social media to seemingly vent about the Sinner suspension.
“I don’t believe in a clean sport anymore …,” he wrote on X.
Sinner’s suspension is from Feb. 9 through May 4, allowing him to return at his home tournament, the Italian Open in Rome, which starts May 7.
He will also get back on the court before the next Grand Slam — the French Open — which begins May 25.
Sinner had previously said his positive test results happened because his fitness trainer purchased an over-the-counter spray in Italy that contained Clostebol and gave it to Sinner’s physiotherapist to treat a cut on the medical professional’s finger without wearing gloves.
“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 on Friday. “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.”
