The Jannik Sinner case is dividing tennis because of its lack of transparency | Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner took his first steps on the clay courts of the Madrid Open on Saturday 20 April. At that point, although the rankings did not yet reflect it, Sinner was indisputably the best player in the world. He had won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January before embarking on a spectacular, consistent run. His pre-tournament interviews in the days that followed were dominated by his burgeoning rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz, a duel that many believe will shape the next generation of men's tennis.

However, what only Sinner, his team and the anti-doping authorities knew at the time was that he was banned from entering the tournament grounds and all other official courts and locations until the day of his first training session in Madrid due to the automatic provisional suspension he had received after testing positive twice for the banned substance clostebol.

None of this information was made public until the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and Sinner's team jointly announced this week that the 23-year-old was neither guilty nor negligent for the presence of clostebol in two of his anti-doping test samples taken in March. That the No. 1 tennis player tested positive for a banned substance twice is significant enough, but the silence that led to the revelation makes the situation even more remarkable.

Most anti-doping cases end with a player receiving notification of a failed test and then being provisionally suspended until an independent tribunal decides the case at the end of a lengthy, public trial.

In Sinner's case, he was notified of his first positive test on April 4, just four days after he won the Miami Open. Sinner immediately filed an emergency motion to lift the provisional suspension and his motion was granted a day later, so the suspension was not publicly announced.

Sinner received notification of the second positive test on April 17, and the immediate provisional suspension was lifted on April 20. Because his suspension came early in the busiest period of the season, Sinner was very fortunate that none of these short-lived provisional suspensions fell during a tournament week.

While it is rare for provisional suspensions to be overturned, they can be appealed at an expedited hearing if an athlete argues contamination or drug use. The hearing will determine at the end of the proceedings whether the player is not likely to be at fault.

A notable attempt to overturn a provisional ban came when Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine was provisionally suspended in January 2021 after testing positive for mesterolone.

Yastremska travelled to the Australian Open, which was being played under strict Covid-19 restrictions, while awaiting the results of her application to have her ban lifted. But the application and subsequent appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were both rejected. Five months later, an independent tribunal finally found Yastremska neither at fault nor negligence.

Among the numerous positive clostebol cases among Italian athletes, the recent case of Marco Bortolotti, a 33-year-old with a career-high 355, bears some similarities to Sinner. Bortolotti was notified of the test on January 30, 2024, after testing positive for clostebol last October. He immediately issued a statement, which the ITIA accepted after seeking scientific advice, and it took just eight days for the agency to conclude on February 7 that he bore no guilt or negligence. The nature of Bortolotti's statement was redacted in the ITIA's final decision.

Since Sinner was allowed to compete again, two different storylines have played out over the last five months. On the one hand, Sinner has had a groundbreaking season in which he rose to number 1 in the ATP rankings and cemented his first Grand Slam triumph in Melbourne with an extremely consistent season.

At the same time, this case continued in secret and overlapped with numerous significant events. During his run to the semifinals of the French Open, for example, Sinner's defense team responded to the ITIA's official communication of adverse analytical results, and he won his third-round match against Pavel Kotov one day after he was officially charged with an anti-doping rule violation. Sinner's independent tribunal met one day after his first-round victory at the Cincinnati Open last week. For some, the lack of transparency throughout his case was troubling.

Darren Cahill, Sinner's coach, said in an interview with ESPN that Sinner was worn down by the fall. “If you're a Jannik fan, you noticed a big change in his body language, his physicality on the court and his enthusiasm to be on the court – he was struggling and I think it was wearing him down physically and mentally,” he said. “He got tonsillitis, which is why he missed the Olympics.”

“I just want to stress that he is perhaps the most professional young man I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He would never do anything intentionally and he is in an incredibly unfortunate situation.”

Sinner has been a popular player on the tour, but since the announcement, some players have publicly voiced significant criticism of the case and what they believe is the favoritism shown to the No. 1 player, particularly given the lengthy provisional suspensions other players have been subjected to before their cases were resolved. It's a sentiment that world No. 54 Roberto Carballés Baena summed up in a comment on his Instagram story: “Once again. Different rules apply to different players.”