As Jannik Sinner wonders whether he could still be banned for failing two doping tests, a players’ association is asking the Grand Slams and two main tours to pay for a legal defence fund for athletes.
The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) was created in 2019 and aims to increase player power within the sport.
It believes the four majors, the men’s ATP Tour and women’s WTA Tour should fund access to third-party lawyers, so financial resources are not a barrier to a speedy and authoritative defence.
It would – they argue – make the system fairer for all players regardless of their ranking.
The PTPA was co-founded by Novak Djokovic, who raised this topic at the recent US Open.
“The question is whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount of money for a law firm that would then more efficiently represent his or her case,” he said.
“I feel like we have to collectively investigate how we can standardise everything so that every player, regardless of his ranking or status or profile, is able to get the same kind of treatment.”
An appeal by the former world number one Simona Halep was heard just over four months after it was registered, with the verdict issued by Cas a further month after the hearing.
It was, however, only last Thursday that the panel’s full reasoning was published.
Cas cut Halep’s suspension for testing positive for roxadustat from four years to nine months but concluded that despite steps actively taken by her to ascertain the contents of the supplement, considered the fault of the negative test, “there was fault on the player’s part”.
Wada will also be hoping to prove fault or negligence on Sinner’s part.
The initial tribunal decided Sinner was inadvertently contaminated with clostebol by his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who had applied an over-the-counter spray containing the banned substance to treat a cut on his own hand.
