Jannik Sinner escapes ban, Taylor Fritz calls out ITIA inconsistency

Saturday, 24 August 2024 at 13:45

America’s tennis star Taylor Fritz has backed Italy’s Jannik Sinner but calls for consistency from the authorities regarding dealing with similar cases. The 23-year-old is regarded as one of the best players currently playing in men’s tennis in the singles category along with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Sinner has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. The world number one narrowly managed to escape a ban after being testing positive for banned substance in two dope tests. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), in a detailed statement, explained the reasons which led them to believe that Sinner was innocent.

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America’s tennis star Fritz was recently quoted in a report where he backed the young Italian tennis star about the incident and stated that he has no doubt about Sinner’s innocent. However, he went on to call for consistency from organisation’s such as ITIA when they are dealing with such situations.

"I mean, it's tough to say,” he said. “You know, everyone is going to have, I guess, their own -- everyone is going to have their own opinion. I think the only thing I will say is I think there's a lot of people that get suspended and can't play for a while because they either missed their tests, like the random testing. I think a lot of people get banned for unfortunate reasons. I guess in this ruling they found that it's different and there's no ban, and I trust that he wasn't, you know, at fault or purposely doing anything. I just think that it should be consistent across the board with bans and who gets banned, who doesn't get banned.”

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Sinner’s most recent appearance came during the Cincinnati Open, where he lifted the title after beating America’s Frances Tiafoe in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2. He will now participate in the US Open, where he will go up against America’s Mackenzie McDonald.