by World number one men’s tennis player Jannik Sinner will head to the US Open with his steroid scandal behind him.
Sinner, who tested positive twice for a banned anabolic steroid earlier this year, will not be suspended. The International Tennis Integrity Agency said Tuesday that the banned substance he tested positive for entered his system inadvertently through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that Sinner was “not at fault.”
Although he will lose ranking points and prize money he received at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he was competing when he first tested positive, Sinner will avoid suspension.
“I will now put this difficult and deeply unfortunate time behind me,” Sinner said in a statement he shared on Instagram. “I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I remain compliant with the ITIA anti-doping program and I have a team around me who are meticulous in their own compliance.”
Sinner first tested positive in Indian Wells in March for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol, which is the same anabolic steroid for which San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended 80 games in Major League Baseball in 2022. Tatis and his father have claimed it came from contaminated ringworm medication.
Eight days later, Sinner tested positive for a second time and was provisionally suspended. However, he appealed the decision and was allowed to continue competing.
The ITIA said in a statement that the positive test was the “result of contamination from a support team member who applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to his own skin to treat a minor wound.” That virus was then transmitted to Sinner through “daily massages and sports therapy.”
“Anti-doping rules must be very strict to be effective,” Sinner’s attorney Jamie Singer said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the unfortunate consequence is that sometimes completely innocent athletes end up in these cases. There is no doubt that Jannik is innocent in this case. The ITIA has not challenged this key principle. However, under strict liability rules, Jannik is liable for everything in his system, even if he has no knowledge of it, as in this exceptional case.”
Sinner took the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career in June. The 23-year-old won the Australian Open in January, marking his first Grand Slam title, and he beat Frances Tiafoe to win the Cincinnati Open title on Monday. Sinner has reached the semifinals of the French Open and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon this season, and he is listed at +200 — tied with Novak Djokovic and slightly behind Carlos Alcaraz — to win the U.S. Open at BetMGM.
“We are encouraged that no fault or negligence was found on the part of Jannik Sinner,” the ATP Tour said in a statement, via The Associated Press. “We also want to acknowledge the robust investigative process and independent assessment of the facts under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP), which allowed him to continue competing.”
“This has been a challenge for Jannik and his team, and it underlines the need for players and those around them to exercise the utmost caution in the use of products or treatments. Integrity is paramount in our sport.”
