Sinner cuts doping deal takes 3 months suspension

Jannik Sinner has agreed to a three month suspension from ATP play in a deal cut to end the doping saga which has engulfed the World No. 1 in recent months.

The Italian’s team dropped the news on Sunday.

In the agreement with the World Anti Doping Agency, Sinner acknowledged his partial responsibility for the errors made by his team.

He tested positive last season for a banned substance which entered his body after his ex-physio used a cream containing the substance to heal a cut on his own hands and then massaged the player.

The anti-doping body admitted that Sinner, did not derive any competitive advantage from the two positive tests for minimal traces of clostebol detected in his system.

“This case has been hanging over me now for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year” he said in a statement.

“I’ve always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love”

“On that basis I have accepted WADA’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three month sanction”

While timings of the three month suspension were not released, if it begins in the next days it would me that Sinner could play Roland Garros which begins on 25th May.

Sinner will now miss Indian Wells and Miami Masters events next month in the US along with European clay masters dates in Monte Carlo and Madrid in April and Rome in early May.