The final Grand Slam tournament of the year begins Monday on the heels of a revelation that has roiled the tennis world: The world’s top-ranked player, Jannik Sinner, had twice tested positive for a banned substance earlier this year but was allowed to continue competing.
Now, less than a week after Sinner’s case was made public, the 23-year-old Italian will compete as the top seed in the men’s singles event at the U.S. Open in New York.
On Friday, Sinner spoke publicly for the first time since the story broke, telling reporters he felt “relieved” at the decision by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to clear him of fault, even as the timing of the announcement days before a major event had caused a storm of media attention and criticism from competitors.
“It’s not ideal before a Grand Slam. But in my mind, I know that I haven’t done anything wrong,” Sinner said. “I always respect these rules, and I always will respect these rules of anti-doping.”
The controversy centers on a pair of urine tests that Sinner failed over an eight-day period in March, testing positive both times for “low levels” of a banned substance called clostebol, according to the ITIA.
Clostebol is an anabolic steroid that has a history of use as a performance-enhancing drug in sports. (In 2022, San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis, Jr., was suspended for 80 MLB games after testing positive for the drug.) In the U.S., it is designated a Schedule III controlled substance.
The drug is also used in topical skin treatments. In Italy, where Sinner and his fitness team are from, treatments containing clostebol are readily available over the counter.
In his appeal to the ITIA, which oversees doping in tennis, Sinner said that he was unknowingly exposed to the drug through two members of his staff at the BNP Paribas Open tournament in California in March.
According to arbitration records released by the ITIA, Sinner’s physiotherapist accidentally cut his finger and treated the wound each day with a medical spray called Trofodermin, which contains clostebol, that had been purchased in Italy and brought to California by a second member of Sinner’s entourage, a fitness coach.
Then, without washing his hands or wearing gloves, the physiotherapist massaged Sinner’s body and helped him with foot exercises, the records state.
Ultimately, Sinner was cleared of fault, although the arbitrator vacated his results at Indian Wells, forcing him to return $325,000 in prize money.In Sinner’s case, a panel of three independent experts convened by arbitrators, two of whom were unaware of the player’s identity, found the explanation plausible.
