Former French cyclist Jerome Pineau has become the latest
high-profile personality from the world of sports to raise concern about the
agreement between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Italy’s Jannik
Sinner. The 23-year-old, who is often regarded as the best player currently
playing in men’s singles category, has been in the news for wrong reasons ever
since he was tested positive for two
doping tests in March last year for the
banned substance clostebol.
Sinner, interestingly, managed to escape any punishment as
the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) declared him innocent
following a detailed hearing where his counsel claimed that the substance was
available in the player’s sample because one member of the coaching staff had
received a cream for the treatment of an injury.
The case, however, was not finished then as
WADA appealed
against the ITIA’s verdict in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and
demanded a two-year ban for the three-time Grand Slam winner in October last
year. The case finally concluded on Saturday as WADA announced that they have
reached an agreement with Sinner, which will result in the player remaining out
of action for three months.
“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that it has
entered into a case resolution agreement in the case of Italian tennis player
Jannik Sinner, with the player accepting a three-month period of ineligibility
for an anti-doping rule violation that led to him testing positive for
clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024,” said the statement.
The development received serious backlash from the tennis
where a lot of active players, including the Serbia’s legendary tennis star
Novak Djokovic, questions the overall proceedings of the case. Former French
cyclist Pineau has recently appeared in a show where he also questioned the
overall agreement between the two parties. He stated that if Sinner would have
been a cyclist, he would have been banned for two years for such an offence. "If
he's a cyclist, number 1 as he is, he gets two years,” he said. “How can you
negotiate a suspension? You're either doping or not. Stop making fun of people.
It's scandalous."