Awful look for Wimbledon to have two players who served drugs bans in the finals

Telegraph

2 days ago

There will be twin elephants in the room when Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner walk out on Centre Court to contest their first Wimbledon finals this weekend.
For the first time in the Championships – and in grand-slam history – two players who have served drugs bans will compete for the men's and women's singles titles. That they are also both multiple major winners and were ranked world No 1 when they failed their doping tests last year has only made it more controversial that they may lift tennis's biggest prize.
For some of their rivals, they are lucky to be at Wimbledon at all after avoiding lengthy exiles from the game over the discovery of banned substances in their systems.
Unrest over their respective three-month and one-month suspensions has also been compounded by the manner in which each of their cases was resolved. That includes the fact that their sanctions were offered to – rather than imposed upon – them, and that they effectively got to serve bans when it suited them, with neither missing a grand slam event as result.
The Sinner saga dates back to March last year, when he failed a drugs test for the steroid clostebol six weeks after winning his maiden major title at the Australian Open. The Italian tested positive both during and after the Masters 1000 at Indian Wells. As a result, he was automatically stripped of the 400 ranking points and £250,000 prize money he earned at the event, where he had been beaten in the semi-finals by Carlos Alcaraz.
He was also provisionally suspended but news of this was not made public following an appeal that was accepted after he convinced the International Tennis Integrity Agency he had not knowingly doped and had a credible case for not being at fault for the failed test.
That case centred on massages provided by his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who was said to have applied an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to his own skin – unbeknownst to Sinner – to treat a small wound. The amount of clostebol found in Sinner's system was not deemed performance-enhancing and the ITIA accepted his explanation and that he personally bore 'no fault or negligence'.
Sinner played at the French Open and Wimbledon after the case was referred for a final decision to an independent panel convened by Sport Resolutions, which agreed with the ITIA's verdict and ruled he should serve no ban.
It was only then – less than a week before the US Open – that the matter was made public. Sinner, who according to his coach, Darren Cahill, had become so ill as a result of the drugs case that he missed the Olympics with tonsillitis, said: 'I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me.'
But despite sacking Naldi and fitness coach Umberto Ferrara, who had provided the banned steroid, Sinner was unable to simply move on. 'Ridiculous,' raged Nick Kyrgios on X before calling for a two-year ban to be imposed on the Italian. Denis Shapovalov and fellow one-time top-10 player Lucas Pouille also hit out, with the former posting: 'Different rules for different players.'
Those other players include former Wimbledon champions Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep, and ex-finalist Marin Cilic, all of whom were hit with drugs bans that saw them miss at least one grand slam. Britain's Tara Moore, who served a provisional suspension spanning 19 months before a panel ruled contaminated meat was the source of a failed doping test, wrote: 'I guess only the top players' images matter.'
Sinner went on to win the US Open before the World Anti-Doping Agency announced it would appeal the decision that he bore 'no fault or negligence' and would seek a ban of between one and two years.
Tennis was still reeling from all this when the ITIA dropped another bombshell in November by announcing Swiatek had accepted a one-month drugs ban.
The four-time and then-reigning French Open champion was revealed to have tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) – commonly used to treat angina and other heart-related conditions – around a week before the US Open.
Like Sinner, she was provisionally banned after the tournament but that sanction was not made public after she, too, appealed and convinced the ITIA she had a credible 'no fault or negligence' case.
Her case focused on medication the Pole had been taking for 'jet lag and sleep issues', which she was able to demonstrate had been contaminated with 'low levels' of TMZ.
She was found not to have taken all possible precautions to avoid contamination and was offered a one-month ban, most of which she had already served. She said on Instagram: 'I have a sense this situation could undermine the image I've been building for years, which is why I hope you will understand I had no control over it and could do nothing to prevent this unfortunate turn of events.'
Kyrgios did not pull his punches when discussing the Sinner and Swiatek cases. 'Two world No 1s both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport,' he said. 'It's a horrible look. Tennis integrity right now – and everyone knows it but no one wants to speak about it – it's awful.'
Both Sinner and Swiatek were able to play at January's Australian Open – the former pending the outcome of Wada's appeal and the latter while waiting to hear if the agency would also seek to extend her own ban.
Sinner went on to retain his title before striking a deal with Wada days later that would see him serve a three-month suspension. 'I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise Wada's strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love,' he said.
His ban provoked even more debate than his earlier exoneration. 'It's not a good image for our sport, that's for sure,' Novak Djokovic said. 'There's a majority of the players that I've talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also last few months, that are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled. A majority of the players don't feel that it's fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favouritism. It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers.'
Similar sentiments were expressed by Jessica Pegula and Britain's Liam Broady, while Kyrgios took to X to lament a 'sad day for tennis'. Three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka also posted: 'I don't believe in a clean sport anymore…'
Daniil Medvedev, who Sinner beat in last year's Australian Open final, said: 'I hope everyone can discuss with Wada and defend themselves like Jannik Sinner from now on.'
Tim Henman told Sky Sports the timing and duration of the ban seemed 'a little too convenient' and had left 'a pretty sour taste for the sport'. Serena Williams joked in a later interview with Time magazine that she would have been 'in jail if she had failed a drugs test like Sinner'. But she also added: 'If I did that, I would have gotten 20 years. Let's be honest. I would have gotten grand slams taken away from me.'
Sinner has repeatedly responded to all this by stressing he is unable to control what people think or say.
Neither he nor Swiatek have faced any public backlash from opponents or spectators since returning from their bans and neither have they suffered any discernible dip in form. Sinner reached his first French Open final last month, although he blew a two-set lead and three championship points in an epic defeat to Alcaraz. Swiatek has suffered agonising semi-final defeats at both the Australian and French Open but is the hot favourite to win her first Wimbledon crown on Saturday.
She has not faced as many doping-related questions as Sinner, who was asked about his ban again after his Wimbledon first-round win over fellow Italian Luca Nardi. 'People kind of have forgotten already a little bit what happened,' he said.
'I have good relationships with more or less all [of the] players like I had before. Of course, in the beginning it was a bit different. People saw me in different ways. But I think they all saw that I'm a very clean player. I was never with intention to do anything bad. I always try to be the best I can, having a good team around me. That's exactly what I try to do in the future.'