Ex-coach of Roger Federer backs Novak Djokovic's comments about systematic problems after agreement between WADA, Jannik Sinner

Ex-coach of the former world number one Roger Federer, Severin Luthi, believes that Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic’s reservations about the agreement between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Italy’s Jannik Sinner are ‘partly right’.

The 37-year-old, who is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles, was perhaps the biggest name player who criticised the agreement between the world anti-doping body and the reigning world number which will see him stay out of action for three months.

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"It's not a good image for our sport, that's for sure," he said as soon as the news broke out of the agreement. "There is a consensus, or I would say a majority of the players that I've talked to in the locker room, not just in the last few days, but also the last few months, they are not happy with the way this whole process has been handled. The majority of the players don't feel that it's fair. The majority of the players feel like there is favouritism happening. It seems like it appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot. We have to choose. The inconsistency is something that frustrates all the players. It’s like, if you are going to treat every case individually or independently, which is what's happening, then there is no consistency, then there is no transparency. Some cases are transparent, some are not."

An ex-coach of former world number one Federer, Luthi, has recently been quoted in a report in which he discussed Djokovic’s comments. Luthi heaped praise on the way Sinner handled the whole issue but also backed Djokovic's claims about systematic problems.

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"The Jannik Sinner case is far from being a doping case,” said Luthi. “I admire the way Jannik handled such a difficult situation: he proved once again that he is a real number 1 and I respect him for that. I think Novak Djokovic is partly right when he says that the real problem lies in the system and the lack of clear regulation, but I prefer not to dwell on such a difficult and delicate subject."

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