DOHA, Qatar — Novak Djokovic says a majority of tennis gamers have misplaced religion within the anti-doping authorities following Jannik Sinner’s three-month ban, and there is a widespread feeling that “favoritism” is being proven to the game’s greatest stars.
The 24-time main winner known as on the World Anti-Doping Company and the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company to overtake their processes for coping with doping instances “as a result of the system and the construction clearly would not work.”
“Proper now there’s a lack of belief typically from the tennis gamers, each female and male, towards WADA and ITIA and the entire course of,” Djokovic mentioned on the Qatar Open.
Prime-ranked Sinner reached a take care of WADA on Saturday to just accept a ban that may have him again taking part in in time for the French Open in Might with out having to overlook a single Grand Slam event. That got here after the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company determined to not droop Sinner for what it judged was unintended contamination by a banned anabolic steroid final March.
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The brief ban for Sinner got here after five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension in November after testing optimistic for a banned substance that she mentioned was by chance consumed due to a contaminated nonprescription treatment. Each bans are a lot shorter than what different athletes in tennis and in different sports activities have usually acquired in related instances.
“It isn’t a superb picture for our sport, that is for certain,” Djokovic, the longtime No. 1 in males’s tennis, mentioned. “There is a majority of the gamers that I’ve talked to within the locker room, not simply in the previous couple of days, but in addition previous few months, that aren’t proud of the best way this entire course of [for Sinner] has been dealt with.
“A majority of the gamers do not feel that it is truthful. A majority of the gamers really feel like there’s favoritism occurring. It seems you could nearly have an effect on the result in case you are a high participant, if in case you have entry to the highest legal professionals and whatnot.”
Sinner had been scheduled to play in Qatar earlier than accepting the ban.
The dealing with of Sinner’s case had already raised questions on double requirements, and when the ban was introduced it was extensively criticized by different gamers. The optimistic exams weren’t publicly revealed till August as a result of Sinner efficiently appealed towards being provisionally banned from taking part in. He then received the US Open in September and the Australian Open in January.
Sinner’s clarification for the optimistic take a look at was that hint quantities of clostebol in his doping pattern have been because of a therapeutic massage from a coach who used the substance after slicing his personal finger, which WADA accepted.
Djokovic mentioned he did not query Sinner’s and Swiatek’s innocence however that he and different gamers are annoyed concerning the inconsistent dealing with of doping instances.
He pointed to the instances of former ladies’s No. 1 Simona Halep — who was given a four-year ban by the ITIA in 2022 after a optimistic take a look at earlier than it was later decreased to 9 months — and British participant Tara Moore, who was suspended in Might 2022 whereas an investigation lasted 18 months earlier than an unbiased tribunal decided that her optimistic take a look at for a banned substance was attributable to contaminated meat.
“Proper now it is a ripe time for us to actually handle the system, as a result of the system and the construction clearly would not work, it is apparent,” Djokovic mentioned. “So, I hope that within the … close to future that the governing our bodies are going to come back collectively of our excursions and the tennis ecosystem and attempt to discover a simpler strategy to take care of these processes.”
