Roddick's backhand slam on social media: Sinner doping drama gets spicy

Former world number one Andy Roddick has hit back at a fan after giving support to Italy’s Jannik Sinner in his recent doping controversy. 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 for the wrong reasons after it was reported that the reigning world number one narrowly escaped a ban despite testing positive for a banned substance twice in doping tests. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced in their verdict that they accepted Sinner’s response after being tested positive.

Roddick, in his podcast, defended the decision of the ITIA and stated that there was no reason to doubt that. A fan on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter— criticised Roddick for being lenient towards Sinner for personal gains. "You are twerking to Sinner, hoping ATP and sponsors give you some contracts,” the fan wrote. That comment did not go down well with Roddick, who hit back instantly and stated that he has ‘zero’ conflict of interest in giving his opinion about the doping scandal that involved Sinner.

"I own my own media company. I don’t answer to anyone,” he wrote. “I write my own shows, have a production team, and edit the shows in-house. Nobody dictates our content. You may not like it, and that’s fine. Haven’t taken a dime from ATP and don’t need their money. I’m about as anti-establishment as it gets in tennis media. Have done it all my way w my own team and zero input from outside. Also, have zero conflicts of interest, which isn’t something a lot of tennis media can say ….. I’m not paid by any player, federations, tours, etc. I don’t take a salary from any broadcasters. I have a per diem at TC and can work/not work when asked by them, and am thankful for the relationship. We produce, edit, and deliver our pod show to them for a fee per episode and have total creative control.”