Former world number one
Andy Roddick has once again raised
questions about
Jannik Sinner not receiving any suspension after
Iga Swiatek’s
case. The 23-year-old is regarded as one of the best players currently playing
in men’s tennis in the singles category.
Sinner has had a fabulous season where he was nearly perfect
on the court. However, he remained in the news for the wrong reasons after testing
positive for a banned substance, Clostebol. Interestingly, the reigning world
number one managed to escape a potential ban after the International Tennis
Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted the player’s counsel response where they
claimed that the availability of a banned substance in the player’s sample in
minimal quantity was because of receiving a cream from one member of the
coaching staff to treat an injury.
That decision received serious backlash from certain
quarters of the tennis community, who demanded more uniform treatment for all players
involved in such controversies. Most recently, women’s world number two Iga
Swiatek received a one-match suspension after testing positive for the banned
substance trimetazidine. Former world number one Roddick, in his podcast on
YouTube channel, questioned the inconsistency in decision-making after Swiatek
received a ban but Sinner managed to escape any punishment.
"The thing that's interesting is I'm always obsessed
with precedent, right? So, they will say the precedent was set that she
(Swiatek) was suspended for a month,” he said. “I don't know how Sinner gets
any less than that. With Swiatek, it wasn't someone on her team. It wasn't as
if someone who did it to her like the Sinner case, assuming we believe the
story he's told. I'm not saying you have to. I just don't think he would risk
his entire career for something that didn't enhance performance. I've said it
many times. If he knowingly did it and got zero benefit, I'd actually take a
larger suspension just for stupidity. I'm not going to go after Sinner because
I don't think he knew. I don't think he's that dumb. I just don't. Maybe I'm
wrong. We'll never know. Best player on earth and worst doper that's ever
lived, maybe.”