Kasatkina's faith in Sinner unwavering amid doping test storm

Russia’s women’s tennis player Daria Kasatkina believes that men’s world number one Jannik Sinner is innocent despite having tested positive in a doping test. 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 been in the news recently, mostly for the wrong reasons. The reigning world number one narrowly escaped a ban despite testing positive for a banned substance in two doping tests. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), in a detailed statement, announced that they accepted the player’s counsel’s response where they claimed that the availability of the banned substance in the player’s sample in minimal quantity was because of the cream received to overcome an injury through one of the members of the coaching staff.

That decision, however, received severe criticism from some quarters of the tennis community, including some current and former players who demanded a more equal treatment for all players who are involved in similar controversies. Russia’s women player Kasatkina was recently quoted in a report where she stated that she has no doubt about the innocence of Sinner.

"That part, you asked if I believed he was innocent and I do,” she said. “Double standards? Jannik is able to hire the best lawyers...people who will have it all figured out. That's undoubtedly his advantage. I have an Italian coach and he knows other incidents that we are not aware of. There were two more players from Italy, female and male, who were caught with the same drug. The girl didn't get away because she didn't know where she had gotten it from...The dose, the drug yeah. I can't remember the names, I don't know those people. And the guy did know, and in the course of 24 days he provided proof. And he continued playing, so that was a similar case."