During the media day of the Brisbane International, awaiting the debut of the new season, Novak Djokovic expressed his opinion on the controversial Jannik Sinner’s Clostebol doping scandal.
The Serbian champion, who did not question the correctness and defense of the ATP No.1 in the entire process, contested how the affair was handled at the media level and by the authorities, supporting – de facto – the words perpetuated by Nick Kyrgios in recent months.
“It’s not nice, but at the same time we live in a world where everyone has the right to express themselves, especially on social media. Nick has been very vocal about the whole issue, and he’s right about the transparency and the inconsistency of the protocols, comparing the cases that have been recorded. We’ve seen so many players, in the past and today, suspended for not even having undergone the banned substance tests and doping tests. Some players who are in lower positions have been waiting for their case to be resolved for over a year,” said Nole.
“I don’t question whether he intentionally took the banned substance or not. I believe in a clean sport, I believe he did everything he could to play fair. I’ve known Jannik since he was very young, so I don’t think he’d do something like that. But I was really frustrated, like most other tennis players, to see that we were kept in the dark for five months after we got that news. It was not a good postcard for our sport,” he added.
And I completely agree with Djokovic’s words, who correctly summarized the whole story. Nobody (or almost nobody) questions Jannik’s loyalty, but it is clear that the Italian athlete is also responsible for the negligence of his team, regardless of the amount of doping substance that entered his body.
And not only that: it is shameful how the story, with the tests failed by Jannik last March in Indian Wells, came out only on August 20th.
Furthermore, it seems quite evident that everything was handled differently compared to other similar cases because Jannik is ATP No.1: this is why WADA is keen to take the situation in hand to demonstrate how – regardless of what happened – the Italian player deserves a trial and a possible ban.
