By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, February 17, 2025
Jannik Sinner's doping suspension sparks strong reaction in fellow Grand Slam champions Aryna Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev and Coco Gauff.
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
Sharing smiles, Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner stood shoulder-to-shoulder launching last month’s Australian Open.
The reigning world No. 1 champions delivered disparate reactions to the outcome of Sinner's doping case.
The three-time Grand Slam champion Sinner has accepted a three-month suspension in his anti-doping violation case—and some fellow Grand Slam champions say the case has changed their perception of tennis’ anti-doping system.
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Sinner is serving a three-month suspension that will ban him from tennis from February 9-May 4th to settle the case, the World Anti-Doping Agency announced on Saturday. WADA had appealed Sinner’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with the Italian Davis Cup hero facing the prospect of a one year or more suspension if the appeal was successful.
Last March, Sinner twice tested positive for the banned steroid clostebol in "low levels" the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced in August days before the start of the US Open.
Two-time Australian Open champion Sinner was not suspended and permitted to play because an independent tribunal ruled he was at "no fault" for the steroid contamination in his system. The three-month suspension means Sinner will not miss a major as he chases the calendar Grand Slam.
"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. “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 three-month sanction.”
MORE: Sinner Accepts Three-Month Suspension to Settle Doping Case
Reigning US Open champion Sabalenka says the shadow of Sinner’s contamination case—and the different outcome fellow former No. 1 Simona Halep experienced in her contamination case—shakes trust in the process and leaves her “scared of the system.”
“You just become, like, a bit too much aware of stuff,” Sabalenka told the media in Dubai. “This thing get to your head that if someone use the cream on you and you get tested positive, they going to go for you.
“You just become, like, too scared of the system. I don't see how I can trust the system.”
To that end, Sabalenka said she’s more vigilant about the glasses she drinks from restaurants over concerns of contamination or dosing.
“Before I wouldn't care leave my glass with the water and go to the bathroom, for example, in the restaurant,” Sabalenka said. “So now I'm not going to drink from the same glass of water.”
Former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev sarcastically said Sinner’s case should now serve as precedent—and a bargaining chip—for all players who test positive in the future.
"I hope that, from now on, if WADA tells you 'we have found this, it's two years' we will respond: 'no, I want a month',” Medvedev told the media in Marseille after his semifinal setback. “I hope it's a precedent, otherwise it would be strange.”
WTA Finals champion Coco Gauff said fear of contamination has limited her medicine and supplement intake to one substance: Advil.
“Me personally, I'm not on any supplements or vitamins,” Gauff told the media in Dubai. “I only take Advil because I get scared to take medicine. But I definitely think the process needs to be a bit more up to date.
“I remember one time I was, like, sick, I didn't know what I could take. I got a response two or three days later. At that point, don't need it (smiling).”
This decision has already elicited reaction from fellow pros.
Gauff said she had an hour-long meeting with officials at one point to gain a better understanding of the whereabouts rule. She said that meaning gave her more knowledge of the process, but believes there should be more clarity.
“But yeah, I definitely think the process needs to be more up to date when it comes to players knowing what we can and can't take,” Gauff said.
“Obviously with the contamination thing, I would say that they are definitely pretty thorough on that side of thing, at least with my meeting with them.”
Ultimately, Medvedev suggests Sinner’s case reinforces an old adage: justice is blind, but money still talks.
The challenge for most players, Medvedev asserts, is they cannot afford the legal team Sinner assembled to thwart WADA’s legal appeal and ultimately work out a favorable settlement.
Time will tell, Medvedev said, whether Sinner’s case is a positive precedent for all players or just another sign of a two-tiered process that favors stars and punishes the rank-and-file.
"I hope that all tennis players can have someone to represent them in these cases, because sometimes many do not have money for a lawyer and represent themselves,” Medvedev told the media in Marseille. “It's a bad sign if Sinner is the only one who can do it.
“But it will be good if, after what has happened with him, everyone can defend themselves like this,"