World No. 1 Jannik Sinner will appear before the CAS on April 16 and 17 after testing positive for a banned substance without being suspended. The CAS announced this on Friday.
‘Neither party has requested a public hearing and the debates will be held behind closed doors’, at the headquarters of the sports court in Lausanne, continues the same source. No date is set for the sentence, usually handed down a few weeks to a few months later.
On two occasions, in March 2024, tiny traces of costebol (an anabolic) were detected in the Italian’s body, but the independent tribunal requested by the International Agency for Tennis Integrity (Itia) had estimated at the end of August that he had ‘committed no fault or negligence’.
The Australian Open and US Open winner claims he was contaminated by a member of his medical team, who allegedly applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to his own hand before massaging Sinner and to accidentally introduce the prohibited substance into their body.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency referred the matter to CAS in September and is demanding a suspension of one to two years against the 23-year-old world No. 1. Itia and the International Tennis Federation have joined the appeal and will also be parties to the hearing.
-‘It was considered in the decision that there was no fault of Sinner. Our position is that there is still a responsibility of the athlete in relation to those around him,’ Olivier Niggli, the director general of WADA, explained in mid-December.
‘We do not dispute the fact that it could have been contamination. But we believe that the application of the rules does not correspond to case law,’ he added.
Winner of the Australian Open and the US Open in 2024, Jannick Sinner will face Chilean Nicolas Jarry in the first round of the Melbourne major, which begins on Sunday.
/ATS
