World ranking listener Sinner
Doping affair-Zverev’s opinion lets your opinion
Updated on February 18, 2025 – 1:17 p.m.Reading time: 4 min.
The three-month lock for the Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner creates discussions. Alexander Zverev, the German number one, expresses his opinion.
The topic of doping hung over the first Grand Slam tournament of the year like a sword of Damocles. At the Australian Open, most players did not want to comment on Causa Jannik Sinner, not even Alexander Zverev, only that enfant terrible The ATP tour, Nick Kyrgios, had shot at the Italian. Zverev lost the final against Sinner and then praised his opponent in the highest tones. On the subject of doping scandal: no word.
Well, three weeks later, it looks different. Because there is now a surprising development. Sinner agreed with the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) on a three-month lock. So he has to expose exactly to the French Open, practical for the world’s most world ranking. At Alexander Zverev, dealing with the Italian tennis star is surprised.
“Either you have not been guilty, then you shouldn’t be blocked at all. Because if you are not to blame, then you have no fault. You shouldn’t be punished,” said Zverev. “But if you let yourself be guilty of something, I think that three months are not a lock for taking steroids.”
For him it is about whether it was Sinner’s mistake or not, Zverev told the tennis portal “Clay” at the ATP tournament in Rio de Janeiro: “This is somehow strange, the whole process, the whole situation that There have been just strange for almost a year. “
Sinner had been tested twice for close -ups in March 2024. The responsible International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted his argument that the steroid had been unintentionally into his body during treatment by a physiotherapist. The Wada originally wanted to achieve a lock of one to two years, but now found that Sinner “had no intention to cheat”.
On Saturday, however, it became known that Sinner agreed to the three -month lock with the Wada. The world ranking listen is not allowed to play tournaments until May 4th, the lock ends in time for the French Open, which will start on May 25th in Paris. Due to the agreement, the WADA withdrew its objection to the CAS sports arbitration court.
“I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and I believe that the strict wada rules are important for the sport I love,” said Sinner, according to the Italian news agency “Ansa”. “On this basis,” says Sinner, he “accepted the Wada offer to regulate the present procedure on the basis of a three -month sanction”.
Although Sinner will miss some top-class tournaments in the spring, including the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo and Madrid, he believes that it gets it lightly. He is allowed to start again at the home tournament in Rome and the clay court highlight in Paris.
The verdict has chilled the tennis scene. Superstar Novak đoković spoke of a “preferred treatment” and even questioned the whole system. “The majority of the players have the feeling that there is a preference. It seems that you can almost influence the result if you are a top player when you have access to the best lawyers and so on”.
In fact, the punishments were much higher than Sinner with less prominent players. For example, the ATP top 50 player Mikael Ymer received 18 months of lock because he had missed three doping tests outside the competition. “This is not a good image for our sport, it is certain,” said đoković.