Adrian
Mannarino questioned the innocence of
Jannik Sinner and
Iga Swiatek regarding
the
doping controversy revealed in a recent interview. The world No. 66 said
that both cases seemed surprising to him, considering they were the only
positive cases in the elite of the Tour.
Sinner’s
case was attributed to contamination from a painkiller with Clostebol, which
his physiotherapist used for cuts on his fingers. When treating Sinner without
gloves, the substance would have entered the Italian's system. On the other
hand, Swiatek tested positive for Trimetazidine, which entered her body through
contamination in melatonin she took for jet lag.
"I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt"
Both cases
have been widely criticized in the tennis world, with voices from players like
Nick Kyrgios,
Denis Shapovalov, and
Simona Halep. Sinner escaped without facing
suspensions, while Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension, which she served –
without the case being made public – by skipping the Asian Swing. After
returning to the Tour, she had one week of suspension left, which she completed
during the first week of the off-season.
Both Sinner
and Swiatek were declared innocent of any intentional wrongdoing; only the
Polish player was suspended due to her fault for buying melatonin from an
unapproved store by the ITIA. Amid the widespread discussions on the matter,
Adrian Mannarino responded to an interview with RMC Sports, where he shared his
opinion on the issue.
"I
don't believe in Santa Claus anymore. If there are those who want to believe,
they can believe but it's not really my type. I'm willing to give them the
benefit of the doubt, but it's still very surprising because this season there
have been two positive tests out of the 300 best in the world, and they are the
two number 1s in the world."
“So I can
also understand that someone could inadvertently take the wrong pill or the
wrong vitamin, but it’s still all very surprising. I wake up every morning at
36 limping. Having to go on the court against 20-25-year-olds, if they’re not
clean, becomes complicated. I hope for their sake that it’s like this,” he
concluded.
Mannarino,
36 years old, will return to the courts in 2024 at the Nouméa Challenger, where
he will be the first seed. The Frenchman decided to play a lower-level
tournament instead of qualifying in Brisbane or Hong Kong. It will be his only
preparatory tournament before traveling to Melbourne for the
Australian Open,
his 59th appearance in a Grand Slam main draw.