Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 men’s tennis player, tested positive for the steroid clostebol in two separate drug tests, but he was cleared by an independent panel and will largely avoid being banned. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday, August 20, that the doping violation “was not intentional” as the clostebol was transmitted through the skin by a spray used by a support team member. However, other professional players are calling out the ITIA for double standards when it comes to applying suspensions for steroids.
Why Jannik Sinner’s positive clostebol steroid test has angered tennis players
The supposed expedience and relative leniency of Jannik Sinner’s positive drug test to the steroid clostebol has been criticized by a growing list of tennis players, including Denis Shapovalov, Nicholas Kyrgios, Liam Broady, and Tara Moore.
Writing in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov stated “Can’t imagine what every other player that got banned for contaminated substances is feeling right now” and followed that up with “different rules for different players.”
Liam Broady, a British tennis player, went further in his post: “Whether Sinner was doping not. This is not right. Plenty of players go through the same thing and have to wait months of YEARS for their innocence to be declared.”
Another tennis player, Australia’s Nicholas Kyrgios, also believes that it doesn’t matter whether the steroid was taken accidentally or not, writing in a post: “Ridiculous – whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you should be gone for 2 years.”
Britain’s Tara Moore, a doubles player, received a provisional suspension in April 2022 after testing positive for the steroids boldenone and nandrolone. And it wasn’t until December 2023, as noted by Tennis.com, that she was cleared of wrongdoing as an independent tribunal ruled that she “bore no fault or negligence” since the steroids came from contaminated meat. By comparison, according to the ITIA decision, Sinner was only provisionally suspended on April 4-5 and April 17-20, 2024, after he filed appeals that were swiftly upheld.
Moore responded to Sinner’s doping controversy on X, saying “I guess only the top players images matter. I guess only the independent tribunal’s opinion on the top players is taken as sound and right. Yet they question them in my case. Just makes no sense.”
As noted in the section labeled “Expert Evidence” in the ITIA decision on Sinner, various independent experts found that his explanation for the contaminated blood samples were “plausible” and that the concentration of the steroid in his bloodstream was “small.” However, Sinner will lose the $325,000 he earned in prize money from the Indian Wells tournament and 400 rankings points.
The Italian won the Cincinnati Open on August 19, 2024 and is a frontrunner leading into the US Open.
