TOP-RANKED tennis player Jannik Sinner tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but will not be suspended because the International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia) determined the banned performance-enhancer entered his system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist.
The Itia announced the case’s resolution on Tuesday and said Sinner will lose the $325,000 in prize money and 400 rankings points he earned at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, where his first positive drug test happened.
“I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me,” Sinner said in a statement posted on social media. “I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the Itia’s anti-doping (program) and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”
Sinner won the Cincinnati Open on Monday and will be among the favorites at the U.S. Open, which starts in New York next week. Sinner made his debut at No. 1 in the ATP rankings in June and is considered among the top stars of the new generation in men’s tennis, along with Carlos Alcaraz.
Sinner, an Italian who turned 23 on Friday, won the Australian Open in January for his first Grand Slam title. He reached the semifinals at the French Open in June and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July, before sitting out the Paris Olympics, saying he had tonsilitis.
During the Indian Wells hard-court event in March, Sinner tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that can be used for ophthalmological and dermatological use. It’s the same drug for which San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended by MLB in 2022.
Sinner tested positive again eight days later in an out-of-competition sample.
He was provisionally suspended because of those test results, but he successfully appealed and was allowed to keep competing on tour. / AP