The Los Angeles Post
U.S. World Business Lifestyle
Today: March 30, 2025
Today: March 30, 2025

Rafael Nadal tells a Spanish TV show he doesn't think Jannik Sinner intended to dope

U.S. Open Tennis
September 03, 2024
AP - AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Rafael Nadal told a Spanish television show that he doesn't think Jannik Sinner intended to use a banned substance and that the current No. 1-ranked man didn't receive preferential treatment when he was cleared of doping after testing positive twice in March for trace amounts of an anabolic steroid.

“I trust that he wasn’t punished because those who judged this case determined quite clearly that there was nothing to punish. ... I don’t believe the sentence has anything to do with him being No. 1 in the world," 22-time major champion Nadal said Monday in an interview with "El Hormiguero.”

Sinner played Tommy Paul in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Monday night.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency said on Aug. 20 that it was determined the banned performance-enhancer entered Sinner's system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that is why the player was not suspended.

Asked about the matter in New York before the U.S. Open began, Novak Djokovic said he gets why some tennis players question whether there’s a double-standard in the sport.

Nadal, who sat out the U.S. Open, said: “I believe in someone’s good faith. I know Sinner; I don’t believe that Sinner wanted to dope.”

“In the end, justice is justice, and I believe in justice," Nadal said. "I believe in the bodies that have to make decisions and that they do it based on what they believe is right.”

___

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Related Articles

Miami Open: Australian Open champion Madison Keys stunned by Filipina teenager Alexandra Eala US runner Shelby Houlihan earns silver medal in return to big stage after 4-year burrito ban Coco Gauff double bagels Sofia Kenin in Miami Open in just 47 minutes, ‘Baby Rybakina’ records best win of career so far Novak Djokovic wanted other players to step up by putting their names on tennis antitrust lawsuit
Share This