A sanction that will not affect his career. After the three months, he will still be number one

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Sinner accepts WADA's three-month ban for Clostebol positive in 2024

The 23-year-old Italian tennis player has accepted the sanction offered to him by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for a positive doping test in March 2024. Jannik Sinner will be able to compete again on May 4, at the Rome Masters 1000, but will miss the Sunshine Double, the Indian Wells Masters 1000, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid.

Despite the difficult times he is going through, Sinner will not lose his lead. His absence in these competitions will take away more than 1600 points and even so, neither Alcaraz nor Zverev will be able to dethrone him. All thanks to the sanction, which has been one of the lightest in this type of case, as he could have received a one or two year suspension.  

But according to the Agency, the three months is due to ‘the athlete's explanation of the cause of the infraction and assumes that Sinner did not intend to cheat because the substance detected did not provide any benefit to improve his performance’. He had no knowledge of its ingestion and it was a negligence of his entourage’.

Clostebol is a WADA-banned anabolic that is used to treat various conditions such as rashes, skin wounds and inflammatory bowel diseases and is readily available in pharmacies. It is a corticosteroid contained in some creams designed to accelerate the healing of wounds and skin conditions, which is precisely the use Sinner claims to have made of it.

His physiotherapist used a cream containing Clostebol to treat a cut on his finger, without knowing that the product contained Clostebol. Using it without therapeutic need in athletes is considered doping, as some of its effects are to increase muscle mass and strength. For this reason, other athletes have also been punished, such as Alexio Scinto, Laura Barquero and Therese Johaug.

Although Sinner has always declared his innocence, he has accepted the sanction because if he had waited a few more months to answer, it would have been greater. ‘I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and I realise that the strict WADA rules are an important protection for the sport I love. It is on this basis that I have accepted the offer to settle this proceeding with a three-month sanction,’ Sinner explained in a statement.