John Millman's take on tennis' recent controversy: Sinner did no sin

Former Australia player John Millman has defended the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for their decision in the case of world number one Jannik Sinner. 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 Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Sinner has recently been involved in a controversy as he narrowly escaped a ban after being tested positive for banned substance, not once but twice. The decision of the ITIA has received severe criticism from some quarters of the tennis community, including some active players such as Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and Canada’s Denis Shapovalov.

However, former Australian player Millman was recently quoted in a report where he defended ITIA’s decision. The 35-year-old was of the opinion that the organisation which made a blunder while handing a four-year ban to former women’s world number one Simona Halep, which was later overturned, made the right call.

"Before jumping to conclusions, Jannik Sinner had less than a billionth of a gram in his system... I believe him 100 percent... maybe we should change threshold cater for contamination. Finally why the uproar for this when we allow athletes in all sports, including tennis, to abuse TUE’s?" he wrote in a post on social media platform X — previously known as Twitter. “Furthermore, the ITIA handled this 1000x better than the butcher job with Simona. Jannik is about as good a person that exists on tour. At least read the report before you pass judgement.”

Sinner is going through an impressive campaign where he won his first Grand Slam title after beating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the final in a five-set thriller with a score of 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3. His most recent appearance came in 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.