Jannik Sinner will serve a three months ban from tennis after the sport’s number one player and reigning Australian Open champion reached an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Sinner’s ban comes after two drug tests returned positive in 2024, and will be out of the ATP tour until May 4 – meaning he will be back in time to compete at the second Grand Slam; the French Open.
The Italian has accepted the ban and period of ineligibility which takes effect from February 9 until May 4, three weeks before the French Open serves off May 25 at Roland Garros.
Sinner will miss four ATP Masters 1000 events – Indian Wells and Miami in March, along with Monte-Carlo and Madrid in April. He will be eligible to return at his home event, the Masters 1000 in Rome on May 7.
Controversy has trailed the decision to let Sinner serve the ban now, having first tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol in March 2024 – the Italian would be cleared in August 2024 by an independent tribunal that looked into the case.
In a case presented by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), the tribunal accepted Sinner’s explanation that the banned substance entered his body as a result of a massage from his physiotherapist.