"This is nuts": Martina Navratilova lambasts WADA for appealing ITIA's verdict in Jannik Sinner's doping case

Former world number one Martina Navratilova has lambasted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for lodging an appeal against Jannik Sinner’s verdict in the doping ban. The 23-year-old is already regarded as one of the best men's tennis players in the world, along with the likes of Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Sinner has been going through a tough time in the recent past. He tested positive for the banned substance clostebol on two occasions but narrowly managed to escape a ban. 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 was because of receiving cream from a member of the coaching staff.

On Saturday, WADA announced that they have lodged an appeal against the verdict in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Their statement mentioned that the World Anti-Doping Agency wants a ‘one or two-year suspension’ for the reigning world number one player in men’s tennis.

“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that on Thursday, 26 September, it lodged an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, who was found by an independent tribunal of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to bear no fault or negligence having twice tested positive for clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024,” said statement. “It is WADA’s view that the finding of “no fault or negligence” was not correct under the applicable rules. WADA is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years.”

Former world number one Navratilova, who is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of women’s tennis, having won as many as 18 Grand Slam titles, in a post on her official account on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter—has lambasted WADA for their decision and called the organisation a ‘mess’. “This is nuts. WADA is a mess. The Chinese swimmers walk and now this? What a bad system we have,” she wrote.