The fallout from Jannik Sinner\u2019s three-month drug ban continues to be the biggest talking point in tennis, with opinion divided on the outcome of what is a complex case.<\/p>\n
World No 1 Sinner<\/a> tested positive for clostebol in March last year, but the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) decided not to suspend the Italian after accepting his explanation for why the anabolic steroid was found in his system.<\/p>\n The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced it had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was seeking a two-year ban, but they reached \u2018an agreement\u2019 with Sinner and his team that sees the Australian Open and US Open champion sitting out of the sport for the nxt three-months.<\/p>\n That agreement has been met with plenty of pessimism by many observers, but WADA\u2019s general counsel Ross Wenzel believes the sanction level was \u201cin the right place\u201d for the offence.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a case that was a million miles away from doping,\u201d he told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing.<\/p>\n \u201cWADA has received messages from those that consider that the sanction was too high and, in some respects if you have some saying this is unfair on the athlete, and others saying it\u2019s not enough, maybe it\u2019s an indication that although it\u2019s not going to be popular with everyone, maybe it\u2019s an indication that it was in the right place.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we look at these cases we try to look at them technically, operationally and we don\u2019t do it with fear of what the public and the politicians or anyone is going to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Plenty of leading former and current tennis players have given their judgement on Sinner\u2019s ban, which was at a level that ensured he does not miss any Grand Slams and will return just before the Rome Masters in his home country.<\/p>\n 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic was among those who questioned the process that concluded with Sinner\u2019s three-month ban, yet Andy Murray\u2019s former coach Dani Vallverdu has suggested the Italian should be getting support rather than criticism from those within the sport.<\/p>\n Both the ITIA and WADA have now concluded that this was not a case of deliberate doping, with Vallverdu \u2013 who was working with Murray when he won his first Wimbledon title in 2013 \u2013 arguing the time has come for Sinner to be shown some support from the tennis family.<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek failed drug tests should not \u2018strike fear\u2019 into tennis players<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek failed drug tests \u2013 inside story on tennis anti-doping programme<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAfter giving it some days to digest the reaction from the tennis world regarding the Jannik Sinner ban, I would like to say that I\u2019m saddened by the lack of camaraderie \u2013 most not focusing on the facts of the case,\u201d Vallverdu wrote on his X account. \u201cThe real losers here are JS (Sinner) and tennis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be focusing on the Anti-Doping agency\u2019s processes and rules rather than the player being a victim from it \u2013 who clearly had zero performance-enhancing benefits. ZERO.<\/p>\n \u201cI have known JS since he was 14-years-old and I\u2019m comfortable to say that he is 100% not at fault.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Anti-Doping agencies are at fault for the lack of consistency and accuracy with most tennis cases lately.<\/p>\n \u201cThere should have never been a ban here. Not an easy time for JS and the Team. Stay strong and Rome will be the perfect setting for the warm welcome he deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinner has yet to confirm whether he will play the the Rome Masters, but it would appear to be the natural return date for the world No 1 as he aims to win his first French Open title at Roland Garros in an event that gets underway in May.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Juan Martin del Potro explains why he finds Jannik Sinner\u2019s doping ban \u2018strange\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner\u2019s drug ban is wrong according to Andy Murray\u2019s former coach<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fallout from Jannik Sinner\u2019s three-month drug ban continues to be the biggest talking point in tennis, with opinion divided on the outcome of what is a complex case. World No 1 Sinner tested positive for clostebol in March last year, but the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) decided not to suspend the Italian after […]<\/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-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","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=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n