Jannik Sinner became the latest athlete to escape a drug ban with a simple but powerful explanation, contamination. He seems to have a clear way through the US Open which is a few days away. With the no fault or negligence finding against the world’s number one male player, Sinner won’t receive a ban from the ATP Tour. He only has to give up the $325,000 and 400 ranking points he won at Indian Wells. He will remain at World No. 1 despite losing the tour points.
Contamination has long been the go-to defense for those who test positive for illicit substances. Some athletes with the same issues had it with excuses from consumption of food or supplements laced with steroids. Some others made it more extraordinary like through kissing. In Sinner’s case, it was a contamination from a massage from his physiotherapist. How did this situation unfold?
It Was All Because Of A Massage
Sinner was notified of his first positive test on April 4 – four days after he won the Miami Open. He immediately filed an urgent application to lift the provisional suspension. His request was granted a day later and the ban was not publicly announced.
The 23-year-old received the notification of the second positive test on April 17. Again, the immediate provisional suspension was lifted only three days afterward. However, an independent tribunal organized by Sport Resolutions has exonerated him of wrongdoing. The tribunal accepted Sinner’s explanation that the anabolic agent clostebol entered his system through massages and sports therapy administered by a member of his support team.
According to the ITIA, Sinner stated that his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, used an over the counter spray containing clostebol to treat a minor finger injury. Naldi then performed massages on Sinner between March 5 and March 13 without wearing gloves, inadvertently transferring the substance to the tennis star’s body.
Naldi was also stated to have had no knowledge that the substance he applied to Sinner’s wound had clostebol in it. Clostebol is a steroid that can be utilized to increase muscle mass. According to Sinner, the quantity of clostebol detected in his system was minuscule, amounting to less than one billionth of a gram. “I will not put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me,” he said in a statement posted on social media.
Similar Contamination Cases
Fellow tennis player Richard Gasquet also escaped a ban after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) accepted he tested positive for cocaine after kissing a woman who had taken the drug in a nightclub. The Italian basketball player Riccardo Moraschini had a similar case to Sinner. He argued that his wife had used a spray containing the steroid clostebol on a cut finger which she had unwittingly transferred to her husband.
Unfortunately, Moraschini was unable to demonstrate “no fault or negligence.” He still got banned for a year. Boxer Conor Benn has attributed his failed drug test to the consumption of too many eggs. British boxer star Tyson Fury, who accepted a two-year ban after testing positive for nandrolone, always maintained the result had been down to eating uncastrated wild boar.
Another case was British doubles player Tara Moore. She served a provisional ban spanning 19 months before being cleared of doping. ITIA clears her of wrongdoing after eating contaminated meat. Most anti-doping cases end up with a player receiving notification of a failed test and then being provisionally suspended until an independent tribunal has ruled on the case at the end of a lengthy, public process. But, in Sinner’s case, the ban was not publicly announced due to the quick decision to lift the suspension within only days of the suspension.
Jannik Sinner Will Face Scrutiny At US Open
Sinner was also lucky that neither of those short-lived provisional bans fell on a tournament week. The first case was solved four days after the Miami Open crown. Then, the second case was solved during his training session for the Madrid Open.
Sinner will enter the final major of the year, the US Open, starting on Monday. He won his first major title back in January at the Australian Open. He was already anticipating increased attention upon his arrival in New York for the year’s final major. However, this situation has added an extra layer of scrutiny. “It’s certainly surprising and shocking,” ESPN analyst John McEnroe said. “Someone else who says the same thing, you know, get suspended,” the seven-time major winner continued.
Not everyone is completely ready to just move forward. It will be interesting to see how much scrutiny Sinner receives during the US Open where he will be the top-seeded man.
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