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.”