"We were surprised too": Jannik Sinner's lawyer claims WADA wants to punish world number one for mistake of coaching staff

Jamie Singer, the lawyer of the Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner, has stated that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wants to punish the reining world number one for a mistake made by a member of his coaching staff. 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 in the news recently for the wrong reasons. The two-time Grand Slam winner tested positive for the banned substance clostebol on two occasions in March but managed to escape a ban. That was down to his counsel’s response in front of the three-member independent panel by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), 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.

However, things did not get easier for Sinner as on Saturday, WADA announced that it had lodged an appeal against the verdict in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) demanding ‘one or two years suspension’. Singer, who appeared in front of the ITIA during the previous hearings, was recently quoted in a report where he stated that WADA wants to punish Sinner for a mistake of his coaching staff. He was of the opinion that they were surprised by WADA’s decision to appeal against the verdict despite knowing that the case was ‘resolved correctly’.

“We were surprised too, to be honest,” he said. “After Jannik tested positive for Clostebol in an infinitesimal amount, the ITIA understood the sensitivity of the case and turned to an expert independent tribunal instead of ruling directly. We hoped that the experience of the three specialists of the Sport Resolution Panel, and their well-substantiated and documented judgments, would convince the parties that the matter had been resolved correctly. We are all aware that WADA has the full right to take this action, appealing was within its possibilities. WADA believes that he is somehow responsible for the actions of his team and for this reason they ask for him to be punished.”