A bolt from the blue shook Italian tennis fans this morning, just as Jannik Sinner (who had already known everything for a couple of days) was playing the second round of the ATP 500 in Beijing. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) against the acquittal of the world number one, who was found free of guilt or negligence by an independent tribunal appointed by International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia), after testing positive for Clostebol in a check carried out in Indian Wells on March 10 and in another test carried out the following week.
Wada, we read in a note, believes that the conclusion of the independent tribunal, which speaks of “no fault or negligence”, is not correct under current regulations. Wada therefore requests a “period of ineligibility of between one and two years” for Sinner, but, further specifies in today’s press release, “does not request the cancellation of any result, except as already established by the court of first instance”, in thanks to the ATP points (400) and the Indian Wells prize money, already canceled and taken away from the blue.
The affair is well known to everyone and it seemed it could now be behind us for Sinner himself, who wanted to respond in the afternoon through a specific statement.
