By Rohith Nair
(Reuters) -World number one Jannik Sinner has accepted an immediate three-month doping ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said they had reached a settlement on his period of ineligibility, making him eligible to return before the French Open in May.
WADA had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against an independent tribunal’s decision in August to clear Sinner of wrongdoing after he failed drug tests.
Sinner had tested positive for anabolic agent clostebol which he said had entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy. The case was set to be heard by CAS in April.
Sinner’s ban began on February 9 and will end on May 4 while he can return to training on April 13. The French Open main draw is scheduled to begin on May 25.
“WADA confirms that it has entered into a case resolution agreement in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, with the player accepting a three-month period of ineligibility for an anti-doping rule violation,” WADA said in a statement on Saturday.
“WADA accepts that Mr Sinner did not intend to cheat and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage.
“However, under the Code and by virtue of CAS precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence.”
WADA has formally withdrawn its appeal to CAS after they reached a settlement while they did not seek disqualification of his results.
Sinner is the second high-ranked player to accept a doping ban in recent months after world number two Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension in November having tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
Swiatek had been provisionally suspended from September 12 until October 4, missing three tournaments as a result while she also forfeited prize money from the Cincinnati Open, the tournament directly following the test.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan and Christian Radnedge)
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