"I hope it’s a precedent": Daniil Medvedev criticises WADA, Jannik Sinner agreement for three-month ban after failed doping tests

Russia’s tennis star Daniil Medvedev has become the latest player to voice concerns about the recent agreement between the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and Italy’s Jannik Sinner. The 23-year-old, who is widely regarded as the best player currently playing in men’s tennis in the singles category, has been in the news for wrong reasons recently.

Sinner tested positive for banned substances on two occasions in March last year. Interestingly, he managed to escape a ban after 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.

Things turned ugly for the world number one in October last year when it was announced that the World Anti-Doping Agency (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. However, the issue finally came to a conclusion 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,” the statement said.

The news received serious backlash from a number of current players and Medvedev became one of them. The one-time Grand Slam winner, who recently featured in the Open 13 and suffered a defeat in the semifinal to Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic, spoke to the media after the match and criticised the decision. “I hope that from now on, if WADA if they tell you: ‘we found this, it’s two years’, you answer: ‘no, I want a month’,” I hope it’s a precedent. Otherwise it would be weird,” he said.