Jannik Sinner, the No. 1 ranked men’s tennis player in the world, will head into the U.S. Open with his steroid scandal behind him.
Sinner, who tested positive twice for a banned anabolic steroid earlier this year, won’t be suspended. The International Tennis Integrity Agency said Tuesday that the banned substance he tested positive for entered his system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that Sinner was “not at fault.”
While he will still lose ranking points and prize money he received at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, which he was competing in when he first tested positive, Sinner will avoid suspension.
“I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me,” Sinner said in a statement he shared on Instagram. “I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping program and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”
Sinner first tested positive at Indian Wells in March for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol, which is the same anabolic steroid that San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended 80 games for in Major League Baseball in 2022. Tatis and his father claimed it came from a tainted ringworm medication.
Sinner then tested positive a second time eight days later after the tournament, and he was provisionally suspended. He appealed that ruling, however, and was allowed to keep competing.
The ITIA said in a statement that the positive test was a “result of contamination from a support team member, who had been applying an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to their own skin to treat a small wound.” This was then passed onto Sinner through “daily massages and sports therapy.”
“Anti-doping rules have to be very strict to be effective,” Sinner’s lawyer, Jamie Singer, said in a statement. “Sadly the unfortunate consequence is that, occasionally, entirely innocent athletes get caught up in them. There is no question that Jannik is innocent in this case. The ITIA did not challenge that key principle. However, under strict liability rules, Jannik is responsible for whatever is in his system even when entirely unaware of it, as in this exceptional case.”
Sinner took the top spot in the world rankings for the first time in his career in June. The 23-year-old won the Australian Open in January, which marked his first Grand Slam title, and he beat Frances Tiafoe to claim the Cincinnati Open title on Monday. Sinner reached the semifinals at the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon this season, and he’s listed at +200 — even with Novak Djokovic and slightly behind Carlos Alcaraz — to win the U.S. Open on BetMGM.
“We are encouraged that no fault or negligence has been found on Jannik Sinner’s part,” the ATP Tour said in a statement, via The Associated Press. “We would also like to acknowledge the robustness of the investigation process and independent evaluation of the facts under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP), which has allowed him to continue competing.
“This has been a challenging matter for Jannik and his team, and underscores the need for players and their entourages to take utmost care in the use of products or treatments. Integrity is paramount in our sport.”