"Horrible look for the sport": Jessica Pegula joins list of active players to criticise WADA, Jannik Sinner agreement for three-month ban

America’s tennis star Jessica Pegula has become the latest high-profile player to criticise the agreement between the World Anti-Doping Agency and men’s world number one Jannik Sinner. The agreement, which was made public on Sunday, will see the 23-year-old, who is often regarded as the best player currently playing in men’s tennis in the single category, stay out of action for three months after failing two dope tests in March 2024 for banned substance clostebol.

The statement was released by WADA, which declared that the player and the doping agency had reached an agreement to close the case. “The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that it has entered into a case resolution agreement in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, with the player accepting a three-month period of ineligibility for an anti-doping rule violation that led to him testing positive for clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024,” the statement said.

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The agreement has received serious backlash from the fans as well as some current tennis players, including Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. Women’s world number Pegula, who is currently in Dubai to play in the Dubai Masters,has spoken to the media and become the latest high-profile active player to lambast the agreement between the two parties. The 30-year-old was of the opinion that the agreement between WADA and Sinner shows how ‘broken’ the system is.

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"I think my reaction is that, whether you think he did or you don't, or whatever side you're on, the process just seems to be completely not a process," she said. "It seems to just be whatever decisions and factors they take into consideration, and they just make up their own ruling. I don't really understand how that's fair for players when there's just so much inconsistency and you have no idea. If you're clean or not, the process is completely broken. I think it needs to be seriously looked at and considered. I feel like they have so much power to ruin someone's career, as well. I think there needs to be something done about that because it just seems really unfair. I don't think any of the players trust the process at all right now. Zero. It's just a horrible look for the sport."

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