Jannik Sinner stepped onto the clay courts of the Madrid Open for the first time on Saturday, April 20th. At that point, his rankings hadn’t yet reflected it, but Sinner was arguably the best player in the world. He’d won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January and had been remarkably consistent since. In pre-tournament interviews in the days that followed, he spoke of a budding rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, a matchup that many believe will define the next generation of men’s tennis.
But what only Sinner, his team and anti-doping authorities knew at the time was that he had been given an automatic provisional suspension as a result of two positive tests for the banned substance clostebol, which meant he was barred from entering the tournament venue or any other official venues or courts until the day of his first training session in Madrid.
That information was not made public until this week, when the International Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA) and Sinner’s team jointly announced that the 23-year-old was not negligent or negligent in the presence of clostebol in two anti-doping samples taken in March. It is significant enough that the world’s number one ranked player has tested positive for a banned substance twice, but it is even more remarkable given the silence that has accompanied this discovery.
Most anti-doping cases end with an athlete being notified that they have failed a test and then provisionally suspended until an independent tribunal can rule on the case after a lengthy public process.
Sinner was notified of his first positive test on April 4, just four days after winning the Miami Open. He immediately filed an emergency application to have his provisional suspension lifted, which was granted the following day, so the suspension was not made public.
Sinner was notified of his second positive test on April 17 and his immediate provisional suspension was lifted on April 20. Sinner was extremely fortunate that neither of his short provisional suspensions fell during a tournament week, as his suspensions were imposed at the beginning of the busiest period of the season.
Provisional suspensions are rarely lifted, but if a player alleges he was involved in contamination or substance abuse, he can challenge it at an emergency hearing, which will determine whether the player is likely to be found not at fault at the end of the process.
One notable attempt to overturn a provisional suspension came when Ukrainian athlete Dayana Yastremska tested positive for mesterolone in January 2021 and was provisionally suspended.
Yastremska travelled to the Australian Open, which was being played under strict COVID-19 restrictions, while awaiting the outcome of her application to have her suspension lifted, but that application and a subsequent appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were both rejected, with an independent tribunal ultimately finding five months later that Yastremska had not been found to have been negligent or negligent in the incident.
There have been a number of positive cases of clostebol among Italian athletes, but the most recent case of 33-year-old Marco Bortolotti, who is ranked 355th and has a career-high ranking of 355th, bears similarities to Sinner’s. After testing positive for clostebol in October last year, Bortolotti was informed of his test results on January 30, 2024. Bortolotti immediately provided an explanation, which the ITIA accepted after seeking scientific advice, and just eight days later, on February 7, the agency concluded that Bortolotti had not been negligent or negligent. The contents of Bortolotti’s explanation were redacted from the ITIA’s final decision.
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Two separate storylines have unfolded in the last five months since Sinner was cleared to compete: on the one hand, he has had a breakout season, rising to No. 1 in the ATP rankings and cementing his first Grand Slam win in Melbourne with an extremely consistent season.
At the same time, the case has continued to play out behind closed doors and has coincided with a number of important events: Sinner’s legal team responded to the official notice of the ITIA’s adverse analytical findings while reaching the French Open semifinals, Sinner won his third-round match against Pavel Kotov the day after he was formally charged with doping, and Sinner’s independent trial was held the day after his first-round win at the Cincinnati Open last week. For some, the lack of transparency throughout his case has been troubling.
Sinner’s coach, Darren Cahill, said in an interview with ESPN alongside Simeone Vagnozzi that Sinner is exhausted by the incident. “If you’re a fan of Yannick, you’ve seen a big change in his body language, his physical movements on the court, his enthusiasm to be on the court. I think he’s struggling and he’s exhausted physically and mentally,” he said. “He had tonsillitis and that’s why he missed the Olympics.”
“I want to emphasize that he is probably the most professional young man I’ve ever worked with. He would never do anything deliberately. And he’s in a very unfortunate situation.”
While Sinner is a popular player on the tour, some players have publicly raised major issues about the matter since the announcement, seeing it as favouritism towards the world number one player, especially given that other players were serving lengthy provisional suspensions before the resolution was reached. This was summed up by Roberto Carballes Baena, world number 54, who wrote in a post on his Instagram story: “Again, different rules for different players.”
