Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic has said that many players in his sport have “lost faith” in anti-doping authorities after the Jannik Sinner incident where the World No 1 was given just a three-month ban for trace amounts of Clostebol in his doping sample. Djokovic said that there was a feeling in tennis that “favoritism” was being shown to the sport’s biggest stars. The 24-time major winner aimed his criticism at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to overhaul their processes for dealing with doping cases “because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work.”
“Right now there is a lack of trust generally from the tennis players, both male and female, toward WADA and ITIA and the whole process,” Djokovic said at the Qatar Open.
“It’s not a good image for our sport, that’s for sure. 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 (for Sinner) has been handled,” former world no 1 Djokovic said. “A majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favoritism happening. It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot.”
World No 1 Sinner’s three-month suspension means that he will be able to compete at the French Open in May without having to miss a single Grand Slam tournament. Not just Sinner, five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek was also handed with a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for a banned substance that she said was accidentally consumed because of a contaminated nonprescription medication. Sinner, meanwhile, claimed that trace amounts of Clostebol in his doping sample was due to a massage from a trainer who used the substance after cutting his own finger, which WADA accepted.
The duration of the bans have raised hackles in sport. Spanish figure skater Laura Barquero was handed a six-year suspension after testing positive for the anabolic Clostebol, the same substance that earned Sinner a three-month ban.
Djokovic clarified that he didn’t question Sinner’s and Swiatek’s innocence but that he and other players are frustrated about the inconsistent handling of doping cases. He pointed to the case of former women’s No. 1 Simona Halep — who was given a four-year ban by the ITIA in 2022 after a positive test before it was later reduced to nine months — and British player Tara Moore, who was suspended in May 2022 while an investigation lasted 18 months before an independent tribunal determined that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by contaminated meat.
“Right now it’s a ripe time for us to really address the system, because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work, it’s obvious,” Djokovic said. “So, I hope that in the … near future that the governing bodies are going to come together of our tours and the tennis ecosystem and try to find a more effective way to to deal with these processes.”
(With inputs from AP)
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