Jannik Sinner’s case was “a million miles away from doping”, a senior figure at the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has said.
The men’s tennis world number one was handed an immediate three-month ban by Wada on Saturday after reaching a settlement over his two positive drug tests last year.
Sinner, 23, was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel after testing positive for banned substance clostebol in March 2024.
Wada had been seeking a ban of up to two years after launching an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) following the initial decision by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) not to suspend Sinner.
However, a deal was reached when Wada accepted Sinner was inadvertently contaminated and “did not intend to cheat”.
Sinner has stated that he was inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist, who was treating a cut on his hand with an over-the-counter spray, which was later found to contain the banned substance.
The case has divided the tennis world, with some questioning the timing and length of the ban, how the Italian was able to agree a deal and inconsistencies between recent doping cases.
It led to Switzerland’s three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka posting on X: “I don’t believe in a clean sport any more.”
Novak Djokovic, the 24-time Slam winner, questioned the fairness of the process and said there is “favouritism” towards high-profile players.
“This was a case that was a million miles away from doping,” Wada general counsel Ross Wenzel told BBC Sport.
“The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.”
Wenzel rejected any suggestion of special treatment and said the terms of the ban – that some have claimed will have little effect on Sinner – were appropriate for the case and not taken with the tennis calendar in mind.
Sinner’s suspension began on 9 February and runs until 4 May, making him eligible to play at the French Open – the next Grand Slam – which begins on 25 May.
He has not featured competitively since beating Alexander Zverev in the final of the Australian Open on 26 January and could still be ranked number one when he returns to action.
Wenzel said: “Wada has received messages from those that consider that the sanction was too high and, in some respects if you have some saying this is unfair on the athlete, and others saying it’s not enough, maybe it’s an indication that although it’s not going to be popular with everyone, maybe it’s an indication that it was in the right place.
“When we look at these cases we try to look at them technically, operationally and we don’t do it with fear of what the public and the politicians or anyone is going to say.”
Sanctions are ‘blind to the calendar’
Sinner could return from the ban on home soil, with the Rome Masters set to get underway on 7 May – three days after his suspension is lifted.
That would allow the three-time Grand Slam champion the opportunity to get in some competitive action on clay before heading to the French Open.
On Monday, British player Liam Broady said he believed Sinner’s ban had been timed to impact the world number one’s career “as little as possible”, while former British number one Tim Henman said it “seems a little bit too convenient”.
Wenzel insisted that sanctions are “blind to the calendar” and that the ban was executed as swiftly as possible after a resolution had been agreed upon by all parties.
“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.”
Wada only introduced the possibility of a case resolution agreement in 2021, allowing it to strike a deal with athletes.
Since adding that provision to Wada’s rules, Wenzel believes about 67 resolution agreements have come into effect.
“I checked this this morning and it might be one or two out, but I counted 67 since the provision came into force in January 2021,” Wenzel said.
“That’s just over four years and there’s been 67 of them and they’ve been applied at different stages, almost all stages of the results management process.
“Some of them have been applied at the beginning, at first instance with Wada’s agreement; others have been applied right at the end of the Cas process, as was the case here.”
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