"It's difficult to say whatever happened": Jannik Sinner feels 'sorry' for Nicolas Jarry, other players who receive ban for similar doping offences

Italy’s Jannik Sinner has stated that he feels ‘sorry’ for players who are going through doping scandals. The 23-year-old is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing in men’s tennis in the singles category, along with the likes of Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Sinner came into the ongoing Australian Open after having an impressive outing in 2024, where he was simply unstoppable after winning two out of four Grand Slams and finishing the season as the number one-ranked player. Those achievements, however, have been undermined after reports emerged that the two-time Grand Slam winner tested positive for banned substances on two occasions.

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Despite that, Sinner managed to avoid a ban after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that they had accepted the player’s counsel’s response where they claimed that the availability of the banned substance in the player’s sample was because of receiving cream for treatment from one member of the coaching staff.

Sinner faced Nicolas Jarry of Chile in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday, where he came out on top in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6, 6-1. The contest was an interesting one as Jarry also had a history of doping violations, which led him to face a ban as well in 2020 for 11 months. Talking before the contest, the 29-year-old admitted that it was hard to face a player who avoided a ban on similar charges, which kept him out of action for nearly 12 months.

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Sinner, after the match, was asked whether he feels any sympathy for Jarry, who served a ban for failing a dope test in 2020. In response to that, the reigning world number one stated that he feels sorry for all the players who are going through such problems and once again clarified that his positive dope test was a result of contamination.

“Yeah, I'm very honest with you,” he said. “I don't know the details of his case. For me, it's difficult to say whatever happened. What I can say also passing also these kind of things, we got treated in the same way. There's the protocol. If the protocol has some issues or problem, then it's not my fault, you know? Of course, I'm very sorry for the players who are passing these kind of things. But I don't know exactly the details about his case and my case. I know only what happened to me. I knew what I have to pass. It's basically still on, mine. I have to do some stuff. At the end of the day I was always judged that I was innocent. The amount I had in my body is less than a billionth of a gram and it was contamination. I don't know exactly the details what he had.”

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