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Sport Nation
Why the Jannik Sinner suspension is a “cause for celebration”
Gerard Healy • February 18th, 2025 12:38 pm
For me, it's been so hard to believe the totally negative reaction to Jannik Sinner's three-month suspension from WADA.
Well, not that hard in some quarters, but it has been bordering on the hysterical, when in fact this, without doubt, is a cause for celebration.
There's been calls saying he should have been prevented from playing and to now strip him of the title, which were always going to come, I guess. Claims that this is evidence of an unclean sport - Stan (Wawrinka), if you think he's a drug cheat, say so. But I bet you you'll regret that comment.
And the nonsense from Novak's set up Players Association, that it's a club, not a system, tells you many of the blinded critics are motivated by self-interest, ignorance and possibly disillusionment, happy to make someone else a victim, even if it's unjustified.
WADA is an easy target, and I had them in the gun, I've got to say, initially. But it seems their process worked, and it will only get better with more changes afoot.
But have you ever heard of a player's union arguing the case against a player? No, and it reflects poorly on those involved, for their lack of support for Sinner. Fellas, what are you actually fighting for, if you're not fighting for Jannik Sinner, in this case? Or don't you actually know the rules?
On the surface of it, there were reasons to be critical. And boy, haven't the critics come hard shooting from the hip.
But if you actually delve into the due process, into the details of that process, that were followed to a tee by Sports Resolution and overseen by WADA from the original provisional suspension last April to the decision this week, you come up with a very different picture to that's been painted, to the crooked one, widely promoted.
This case was effectively decided last October, that’s right last October, by four independent judges and three doping scientists. Of the seven experts, six found in favour of Sinner. He was at that stage, in October, found 100 per cent innocent of cheating. So why the pile-on now? It's bewildering.
A final decision had to be made on a matter of principle, only as to him being responsible for his team and the involuntary contamination via his physio.
And to put that into perspective, it’d be like Patrick Dangerfield being responsible for the liniment going wrong down at the Cattery.
The date and length of the next investigation were that of CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) and CAS alone to be held later this year. But a negotiated settlement with Sinner and WADA short-circuited the final appeal.
Three months was the accepted penalty after arbitration for an innocent player, which may in time with rule changes look excessive. And yet the best some of the critics had come up with was that it lacked transparency and was an arbitration. Be careful what you wish for, fellas, for sponsors drop off through a long, long process even though you were eventually found innocent. Simona Halep would attest to that.
How this has triggered the most vitriolic toxic reaction beggars belief, that's an extraordinary overreaction. Sinner played in the Australian Open under a similar, but not identical process to that of Iga Swiatek, both huge draw cards for the event.
A convenient lapse of memory from those that wanted Sinner banned from the event altogether, while saying nothing of Iga. Sinner went on to win, and with the announcement of the three-month ban, another wave of uninformed vitriol crashed into the Sinner camp over the last 48 hours. It's bizarre.
Sinner is a boy wonder who importantly didn't set out to cheat and didn't in any way gain an inadvertent advantage. This was decided, I repeat, last October. So why it had any impact on the Australian Open is in fact bewildering.
He is on the cusp of one of the great careers and where others lost their minds and exposed their jealousies, frailties and lack of understanding of the rules within their own sport, he and his team kept theirs, knowing and confident in his innocence and winning both the US and Australian Opens, while dealing with his unfortunate inconvenience.
Sadly, the system hasn't always worked as well in the past, and the likes of Simona Halep, who is probably a victim of the rigidity in the system, is proof there is still a way to go by both the athletes themselves and WADA. But change for the better is coming.
This is a day for celebration. In tennis and sport in general. Because the system was both rigid and arduous. But it worked.
Jannik, in my eyes, you’re a total champion, unscarred by this unsavoury pile-on, history will paint you in the most positive of light, a dual Australian Open winner as it is, but no doubt there’s more down the track. A career already to be savoured, it won’t be scarred in any way by this nonsense.
