It is very unlikely that Jannik Sinner took a banned substance deliberately, but the outcome of the \u201cagreement\u201d with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has left Patrick Mouratoglou aghast.<\/p>\n
Having twice tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol last March, Sinner<\/a> was provisionally suspended before being given permission to continue playing pending an investigation by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).<\/p>\n Five months later he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the ITIA as they accepted his explanation that his positive tests came after accidental contamination via one of his team members.<\/p>\n He was stripped of his ranking points and prize money for the Indian Wells Open, the tournament where he returned the positive samples.<\/p>\n However, that was not the end of the matter as WADA announced they had appealed the decision not to ban him as they demanded he be suspended for a minimum of between one and two years.<\/p>\n The was case set to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in April, but last week WADA announced they had reached a settlement with Sinner and he would serve a three-month ban.<\/p>\n The tennis community, though, has reacted with outrage respected coach Mouratoglou taking to Instagram to share his views, stating: \u201cI think this Sinner case is a huge scandal. It\u2019s not about him being guilty or not, the question is more about how the anti-doping dealt with the situation. Everyone feels that there is a double standard, which there is, clearly.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very unlikely he [purposefully] did doping, first of all \u2013 and this is a personal statement \u2013 I don\u2019t think this is his mindset at all, I don\u2019t think that is his mentality to do doping. Second, when you find such low levels of a forbidden product in someone, in 90 percent of the cases \u2013 if not more \u2013 it is a contamination. So, the player is then a victim, and that\u2019s why I think he is innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Frenchman believes the Sinner case was initially \u201ccovered up\u201d as the public was only informed of his positive tests in August last year.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWhen a player is controlled positive, in 100 percent of the case, it is the anti-doping [agencies] that make a public statement. As soon as this statement is out, the player is provisionally suspended which means he is not allowed to play anymore \u2013 until the case is finished and there is a decision as to whether he is guilty to not.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Sinner\u2019s case, the ITIA, which is the anti-doping [agency], have decided to cover it [up], they didn\u2019t make it public that he has been controlled positive, they didn\u2019t say anything [they didn\u2019t say] that he has been suspended, provisionally, like every other player would have been. So, this is clearly a double standard.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want a clean sport, and there is no clean sport is there is a double standard, depending on who the player is. It should be only about \u2018did this player do doping? Yes or no?’\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic breaks silence on Jannik Sinner doping ban with \u2018very unfair\u2019 statement<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner \u2018reaches agreement\u2019 with WADA as suspension is confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n The ITIA initially stated that they found Sinner bore \u201cno fault or negligence\u201d as he was deemed not guilty, something that has upset Mouratoglou.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cSecond, after five months, they decided to make it public that he had been control positive five months before, it was also said at the same time that he is not guilty. But, in other cases, the player is supposedly guilty because there is a public statement saying that he was control positive, so for five, six months, maybe one year, two years in some cases, for everyone, this player is doing doping and \u2013 for that period of time, that player cannot compete anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich means he cannot get points, he cannot get money, but, more than anything he gets out of competition for such a long period that, in some cases, his career is over, so they\u2019re destroying the career of a player. In Sinner\u2019s case, again, no statement, and when they did five months later, it is to say that he is not guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n The timing of the three-month ban has certainly raised eyebrows and as the suspension will run from 9 February until 4 March.<\/p>\n Mouratoglou feels it was \u201can arrangement\u201d so that Sinner could play at the Australian Open before returning for his home ATP Masters 1000 event, the Italian Open, with the French Open set to follow two weeks later.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the Australian Open, we learnt that Sinner will be auditioned by WADA in April, so we think it\u2019s going to be like a real tribunal, that will assess the case and decide whether he\u2019s guilty or not,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cRight after the Australian Open, six weeks before when he was supposed to have been auditioned, they decide to take a decision after negotiating with him for a three-month ban. No audition, no review of the case, and a decision that is ideal for him because he could play the Australian Open \u2013 and win it \u2013 and is going to be safe to play the next Grand Slam, which is at the end of May-start of June at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it looks like they make an arrangement to make it look like that banned him a little bit, but not too much so he can play the Grand Slams, and, if you look at it, he\u2019s going to be able to come back and play Rome just before Roland Garros \u2013 being Italian \u2013 so it looks even more like a set-up. It looks like a parody of justice, I understand that other players feel \u2018where is the justice then?’\u201d<\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner doping ban \u2018more like a set-up\u2019 and \u2018parody of justice\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is very unlikely that Jannik Sinner took a banned substance deliberately, but the outcome of the \u201cagreement\u201d with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has left Patrick Mouratoglou aghast. Having twice tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol last March, Sinner was provisionally suspended before being given permission to continue playing pending an investigation by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jannik Sinner News<\/h3>\n