LONDON: Jannik Sinner’s three-month ban for a pair of positive drug tests has been defended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after claims the world number one’s punishment was too lenient.

Sinner’s long doping saga came to an end on Saturday after the tennis star agreed to the ban, admitting “partial responsibility” for team mistakes which led to him twice testing positive for traces of clostebol in March last year.

The Italian was facing a potential ban of two years after WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his initial exoneration by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.

But WADA withdrew its appeal and came to an agreement with Sinner over his three-month ban after accepting the 23-year-old was inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist.

Sinner said that the banned substance entered his system when his physio used a spray containing it to treat a cut, then provided massage and sports therapy to the player.

The sanction has been questioned and criticised by current and former players including Novak Djokovic.

However, WADA’s general counsel Ross Wenzel believes the sanction level was “in the right place” for what had occurred.

“This was a case that was a million miles away from doping,” he told BBC Sport on Tuesday. “The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.

“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.”

In another high-profile case last year, five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine.

In contrast, the recently retired Simona Halep, a former world number one, was handed a four-year ban by the ITIA in 2022 after testing positive for the blood-boosting drug roxadustat.

She argued it was the result of a tainted supplement and successfully appealed to CAS, which reduced her suspension to nine months.

Speaking at the Qatar Open on Monday, 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said many players were unhappy with the way the cases had been handled.

“There’s a majority of the players that I’ve talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also last few months, that are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled,” the former world number one said.

“A majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favouritism happening.

“It seems like, it appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers.”

Sinner’s suspension runs from Feb 9 to May 4, leaving him clear to play in the rest of this year’s Grand Slams, starting with the French Open.

He has not played competitively since defeating Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open final in January.

“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.

“The sanctions that we impose and the code even says this, they’re blind to the calendar.”

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2025