Top ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner tested positive twice for a banned anabolic steroid in March and was stripped of prize money and points earned at a tournament in Indian Wells, California. But he will not be suspended because an independent tribunal said it was not intentional.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced the case on Tuesday.
Sinner won the Cincinnati Open on Monday and will be among the favorites in the US Open, which starting in New York next week. Sinner debuted at No. 1 in the ATP rankings in June and is counted among the top stars of the new generation in men’s tennis, along with Carlos Alcaraz.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Sinner, an Italian who turned 23 last Friday, won Australian Open in January for his first Grand Slam title. He made it to the semi-finals at French Open in June and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in July, before sitting outside Paris Olympicssays he had tonsillitis.
During the Indian Wells hard-court event in March, Sinner tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that can be used for ophthalmological and dermatological uses. It’s the same drug that the San Diego Padres star for Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended by MLB.
Sinner tested positive again eight days later in an out-of-competition test.
He was provisionally suspended due to these test results, but he successfully appealed and was allowed to continue competing on tour.
According to ITIA, Sinner said his test results happened because a member of his support team used an over-the-counter spray containing Clostebol to treat a small wound. That team member then gave Sinner a massage.
ITIA said it accepted Sinner’s explanation and determined that the breach was not intentional.
An independent panel held a hearing on August 15 and “made a finding that no fault or negligence applied in the case, resulting in no period of ineligibility,” according to the ITIA.