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Tennis world number one Jannik Sinner finally broke his silence on the anti-doping case and said that he was relieved to escape a doping ban despite testing positive twice. The 23-year-old tennis star spoke publicly for the first time since the International Tennis Integrity Agency gave him a clearance this week of wrongdoing. The Agency accepted his explanation that the drug entered his system when his physiotherapist used a spray to treat a cut and gave a therapy to him.
Sinner tested positive for low levels of the banned anabolic agent clostebol in March. While he was stripped of his results, the ITIA confirmed that an independent tribunal found that the tennis player "bears no fault or negligence". Speaking about the same, the Italian said during a press conference, “In my mind I know that I haven’t done anything wrong. I had to play for months with this in my head, but just [reminding] myself that I haven’t really done anything wrong. I always respect these rules, and I always will respect these rules of anti-doping. Just obviously a relief for myself having this result.”
The tennis player stressed that he received no favouritism and said, “Every player who gets tested positive has to go through the same process. There is no shortcut, there is no different treatment, they are all the same process.” He went on to say, “We knew it straight away, and we were aware of what happened. We went straight away, and I was suspended for two, three days.”
Sinner also talked about how he feels his reputation will be affected and said, “It has been a very tough moment for me and my team. It still is, because it’s quite fresh, this everything. Let’s see. Here I also know who is my friend and who is not my friend, no? Because my friends, they know that I would never do that, and stick together. About the reputation, we will see now, moving forward, no? Because of this, I can’t really control it. So let’s see.”
