Djokovic says Sinner’s punishment too ‘light’

Novak Djokovic has broken his silence on the doping ban world No 1 Jannik Sinner is facing.

Sinner was due to come before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in April, after World Anti Doping appealed the Tennis Integrity Agency’s decision to clear him of any blame for two failed tests last March.

On Saturday morning it was announced that Sinner had agreed with WADA to accept a three-month suspension, essentially an out of court settlement.

Had such a ban been issued by in April, it would have put the Italian out of the French Open and Wimbledon. By beginning the ban now, Sinner will miss neither. He will return just in time for his home event, the Italian Open.

That was one of the more tame salvos from the tennis world. Nick Kyrgios, Sinner’s chief antagonist during the whole saga, said on X: ‘Obviously Sinner’s team have done everything in their power to take a three month ban. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist.’

Djokovic, who is now one of Sinner’s rivals but at the opposite end of his career, has spoken on the ban the Italian is now facing.

‘I spoke with several players in the locker room,’ Djokovic said. ‘Not only in the last few days but also in the previous months. Most of them are not satisfied with how the whole process has gone, and they don’t think it’s fair. Many of them believe there was favouritism.

‘We have seen the cases of Simona Halep and Tara Moore, and other players perhaps less known, who have had difficulties for years to resolve their cases, or who have been suspended for a long time.

‘I think it is really time to do something and address the system, because it is clear that the structure does not work like this.

‘So yes, it is inconsistent and it seems very unfair to me, and that is all I have to say about it. We will see what happens in the near future, if the whole case will attract more attention and can shed light on other cases of lower-level players. And we have to keep in mind that Sinner and Swiatek, at the time, were No 1 in the world.’

A WADA statement announcing the news said: ‘WADA accepts that Mr 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.

‘However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence.’

So why have WADA accepted this settlement, when they said only this month they were seeking one to two years? To them, the length of the ban is less important than reinforcing the mantra that an athlete is responsible for what goes into their body, especially when that substance was administered, however unknowingly, by a member of their own team.

Also, a ban of three months is in the ballpark of what most tennis insiders believed was most likely. CAS have shown a tendency to find a middle ground in most appeal cases: neither a full acquittal nor a heavy ban seemed likely.

Both the ITIA and WDA accept his explanation that the steroid entered his system during a massage, via a spray applied to his former physio’s finger.