The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has defended its handling of Jannik Sinner’s drug ban, with a senior figure insisting the world No 1’s case was a “million miles away from doping”.
It was announced on Saturday that Sinner had reached a settlement with Wada over a pair of positive drug tests recorded in March last year that will see the three-time grand slam champion banned for three months.
Sinner, 23, will return in time for his home tournament at the Italian Open in May and will be available to play in the next grand slam at the French Open later that month.
While Sinner admitted “partial responsibility” for the mistakes made by his team that led to him twice positive for traces of clostebol, Wada withdrew its appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that asked for a ban of up to two years following the initial decision by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) not to suspend him.
On Monday, the 23-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic said the “majority of players” in the locker room feel there was “favouritism” in the handling of Sinner’s case and in the timing of his punishment, but Wada general counsel Ross Wenzel told the BBC that he rejected accusations of special treatment.
Wenzel also said Sinner’s ban was “blind to the calendar” amid suggestions from former British No 1 Tim Henman that missing the three months between the Australian Open and the French Open was “too convenient”, and argued that Wada has sought over 60 settlements with athletes since introducing case resolutions in 2021.
“Once you’ve reached an agreement, what you can’t do is then say, ‘Oh, but we’re going to have this apply from two months in the future for a period of three months’,” Wenzel said.
“It must come into effect quickly. Of course, once the deal is done, it’s important that it is executed and that it is made public for reasons of transparency.
“So it happened, because of the timing of the CAS proceedings, it happened to be decided last Friday, it was a very late night, and it came into effect immediately, so that is the reason for the timing.
“The sanctions that we impose and the code even says this, they’re blind to the calendar. The correct sanction should be imposed and it comes into effect when it comes into effect and it shouldn’t be modulated or modified to take into account whether the events that are coming up are significant or not significant.”
In a statement on Saturday, Wada said it accepted Sinner’s explanation that he was inadvertently contaminated with the banned substance clostebol by his physio.
Wada said Sinner “did not intend to cheat, and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage”.
“This was a case that was a million miles away from doping,” Wenzel said. “The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.”
