Most of the colony announced on Saturday morning between the world anti -doping agency and the best classified male player in tennis, Jannik sinnerIt is that his one -year saga is now over with a minimum of damage to his career.
Sinner, who was tested positive for the clostebol steroid during the Indian tournament of last year in California, accepted a three -month ban on Wada while the two parties now avoid a planned audience for April before the Court arbitration for sport.
The ban is back dated to start on February 9 and will expire on May 4. It means sinner, who won the Australian Open Last month, no big chelem will not miss and will be eligible to come back just in time for the Italy Open in its country of origin from May 7.
From this point of view, the settlement is a huge victory for the sinner. After the panel of the International Tennis Integrity Agency initially ruled last year that there was “no fault or negligence” found in the Sinner case and did not suspend it, Wada asked for a one year ban in his call to the case in case. Although most of the experts have agreed that the sinner was more likely for a much shorter suspension similar to that he finally accepted, an April audience followed by a week in power would have jeopardized his chances as Playing the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Although Sinner will miss an important part of the tennis season, including Masters 1000 level events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid, he is sufficiently ahead of n ° 2 Alexander Zverev in the ranking (11,830 points at 8,135) that he could still be n ° 1 on his return.
“This case had been suspended above me for almost a year and the process had a lot of time to run with a decision, perhaps only at the end of the year,” said Sinner in a statement on Saturday . “I have always admitted that I am responsible for my team and that I realize that the strict rules of Wada are an important protection for the sport that I like.”
Now, the bad news for Sinner: many fans, and even some of his colleagues, can see this colony as an admission of guilt or reprehensible acts – especially given the practical moment of his suspension.
“Bad day for tennis,” wrote the former top-15 player, who was severe hard towards Sinner, on X.
The major triple victorious Stan Wawrinka wrote: “I no longer believe in a clean sport …” on the same social media application.
The sinner maintained since the positive test became public last summer that he did nothing wrong. His explanation, which ITIA accepted, was that the traces of the substance inadvertently entered into its massage system by its fitness coach Umberto Ferrara. Sinner’s team argued that the coach had used a spray to treat a cup on his finger which is available over the counter in Italy and contains clostebol.
This explanation was at least partially supported by photos of Indian Wells last year, where the positive test occurred, showing Ferrara with bandage by hand.
However, if it is true, this would represent at least a certain negligence and negligence on the part of Ferrara, whose sinner is responsible to a certain extent according to the standards of the AMA. Ferrara is no longer part of the Sinner team.
However, it is difficult to imagine that Wada accepts this ban – and with the moment of the sinner – if they believed that there was a strong file against him to present to him.
What the regulations accomplish for the AMA, however, is a measure of safeguard and well-being. Although it is very unlikely that the wada will get a prohibition of 1 or 2 years for the sinner given the facts accessible to the public of the case, it obtains a certain protection in future cases where an athlete could pass the blame For a positive test on a member of their staff.
“The AMA accepts the athlete’s explanation for the cause of the violation as indicated in the decision at first instance,” the organization of the organization said on Saturday. “Wada accepts that Mr. Sinner did not intend to cheat and that his exposure to Clostebol did not provide any advantage improving performance and took place without his knowledge following the negligence of the members of his entourage .
“However, under the code and under the previous case, an athlete is responsible for the negligence of the entourage. Based on the unique set of facts in this case, a three -month suspension is considered an appropriate result. »»
This article originally appeared on USA Today: Jannik Sinner accepts the 3 -month tennis ban to settle the doping file
