World No. 1 Tennis Player Jannik Sinner Agrees To Serve An Extremely Convenient Three Month Suspension For Last Year's Positive Steroid Test - Avoids Possible 1-2 Year Ban That World Anti-Doping Agency Was Seeking

Thomas F. Starke. Getty Images.

While an ugly situation in tennis seemingly reached its conclusion this morning, it was also met with more frustration and confusion. Today Jannik Sinner and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) agreed to a three month ban based on his positive test results for the illegal steroid Clostebol last year. 

To catch you up real quick — last year at Indian Wells, doping tests found small traces of Clostebol in Sinner's blood. While this is a banned substance, it can be purchased easily over in Italy, Sinner's home country. His team's running excuse was that his physio had a cut on his hand, applied the substance to said hand, and then proceeded to rub down Sinner's legs which allowed it to get into his system. Sinner appealed the suspension immediately and was hit with a provisional ban in the mean time that was kept completely under wraps. Imagine the top player in any other sport being popped for steroids and it not being made immediately public? Just doesn't happen. This part of the story is what pissed off a lot of people in the sport. 

Sinner missed a few smaller tournaments while the general public had no clue it was because of this positive test. Eventually an independent tribunal ruled that Sinner was not at fault and required no further suspension. That's when this was all made public, during the tour's tournament in Cincinnati last August. Players were furious at the apparent special treatment he was given to keep this quiet for most of the summer while it played out with this tribunal. Then they found no wrong doing on top of that, despite the positive tests. Lower ranked players on both the men's and women's side of the sport had not been given such grace and received lengthy bans the moment their tests were positive. Sinner being the number one ranked player in the world and one of the new faces of the sport seemed to play a factor into the process here. 

Jannik would go onto win Cincinnatti as well as the US Open and the year end ATP Finals. Just recently he took home his third career slam at the Aussie Open. He's a bonafide monster on the court, but this dark cloud continued to hang over his head. WADA announced they were going to appeal the independent tribunal's decision back in September, but a hearing wouldn't happen until April. When that got announced I felt it was unfair to everyone involved to wait that long. WADA was seeking at minimum a 1 year ban and many believed that would be the case if they felt they had enough evidence on their side. 

Turn the page to today and Sinner has accepted a three month ban to move on from all of this. Agreeing to miss three months came with the compromise that he's still innocent of any wrongdoing or cheating. During that time he will miss zero grand slams and even get to return just in time for a big home country tournament in Rome. It's essentially the most convenient suspension of all time. 

Here's how some of the tour reacted to the news.

I've got a good feeling that more prominent players on tour think the same way, but just don't want to speak publicly about the matter. Feels rather ridiculous he won't lose any previous titles or prize money that he won prior to this, won't miss any slams, and gets to return just in time for Rome in the spring. Dude basically agreed to take a three month vacation to make this all go away. Most likely he won't lose his number ranking either unless Alcaraz or Zverev have dominant stretches during this three month span. 

It's unfortunately impossible to know if Sinner intentionally used this steroid or not. You want to believe it was a total accident and that his physio was at fault, but at the same time as a pro athlete you're responsible for what your body comes in contact with. Sinner is accepting the three month ban, but is he doing so to just get this out of the way knowing it's a slap on the wrist or that it avoids a potential one year+ ban if he fights it further? 

The big picture problem here is not Sinner himself, but the inconsistency in the sport's handling of these kind of situations. How can someone like Simona Halep be met with such a brick wall when it came to appealing and fighting her multi-year ban which led to her retiring from the sport altogether when that ban expired, while Jannik skates on by like this? How did WADA seek a one year ban and settle for three months with the added tag that Sinner is innocent. What kind of innocence results in a three month suspension? If he's innocent why should he get anything? All of it is a mess and doesn't make good for the sport in anyway. 

P.S. Djokovic having to miss two slams because of his vaccine status while Sinner misses none for a positive steroid test is fucking ridiculous