The World #1 loses Indian Wells Points and Prize Money after testing positive for Clostebol.
Just over 12 hours after notching his third career Masters 1000 title, Jannik Sinner shocked the tennis world by releasing a statement regarding the ITIA. He admitted to testing positive twice this past winter through an inadvertent contamination of Clostebol which came through a physio massage performed without gloves. Now, to be clear, his lawyers stated he tested positive for less than one billionth of a gram.
I wanted to break down the course of events for you guys so you can understand how crazy (or not so crazy) this situation really is.
The Sinner camp said that a member of his team purchased a spray that contained Clostebol in Italy, which was then given Giacomo Naldi, Sinner’s physio, who cut his finger. Sinner said that Naldi gave him many massages (without gloves!) which transmitted the substance to Sinner.
The question is, why are we just hearing about this now? Keep in mind, a week after his two positive tests, he goes on a dream run in Miami to claim the 1000 title over Grigor Dimitrov. Dimitrov, who played his best week of tennis all season, didn’t look close in level at that time. Now, it’s easy to roll over and say hey, Jannik Sinner has been getting better over time through hard work which includes proper nutrition, elite therapy work and training, but it’s a bit puzzling given his level a year ago. His game has never failed him as he has always been an elite ball striker, but his body was the one failing him. Fatigue prevented him from going deep in major tournaments as the mileage piled up on his body (better players, best of 5 format, longer matches). A year later, we have a clear cut top 2 player in the world, who failed to execute in two of the last major tournaments (with or without Clostebol…).
But then it came time for the Olympics…And Sinner dropped out just days before citing “tonsillitis”.
What’s important to note is the difference in scrutiny levels between the ITIA Tennis Anti-Doping Programme and the World Anti Doping Agency pre Olympic Test. I don’t think it’s out of the cards to say that the Olympics wouldn’t allow an athlete who has tested positive for a banned substance twice to compete at their games.
What’s most alarming about the whole situation is that Sinner’s physio, Giacomo Naldi, was part of a scandal in 2022 with a Virtus Bologna Basketball Player. In the same situation, basketball player Riccardo Moraschini was suspended for a year because of the spray Naldi used that contained Clostebol. This would be his second offense with the same backstory, so camp Sinner should’ve known the consequence of using the spray on an abrasion.
Furthermore, this is Darren Cahill’s second time attached to a doping/sertoid case as a coach. He clearly knows the ins and outs of the rules given his work with Serena Halep who was suspended 4 years for testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat.
This situation seems like it all could just be a coincidence, but Jannik Sinner struggled with keeping his body intact when it mattered most last season. This year, he came out firing and truly hasn’t slipped up, his only major losses coming to Carlos Alcaraz who went on to win the French Open and Medvedev at Wimbledon. To make things more clear, Clostebol is a muscle Mass enhancer, so what should we believe? We will keep guessing to make things more entertaining… but there has to be more from Camp Sinner. We just learned he was suspended TWICE in April.
Until next time…
-Simon
