By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
World No 1 Jannik Sinner will serve a three-month ban from tennis after reaching an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following two positive drug tests in 2024.
Sinner has accepted a period of ineligibility that suspends him from playing from February 9 until May 4.
He will be eligible to play in the year’s next Grand Slam event, the French Open, which starts on 19 May.
In a statement on Saturday, Wada, which had appealed against the decision to clear Sinner to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), says it accepts his explanation that he was inadvertently contaminated with the banned substance clostebol by his physiotherapist.
The body accepts the three-time Grand Slam champion “did not intend to cheat”, that the drug “did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit” and this happened “without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage”.
It added: “However, under the code and by virtue of Cas precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence. Based on the unique set of facts of this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome.”
Born in the northern Italian village of Innichen, a stone’s throw from the Austrian border, Sinner did not initially appear set for a career in professional tennis.
He was a champion skier as a youngster and still enjoys the sport in the off-season.
Sinner was also a keen footballer, playing for a local team as an attacker.
But he decided to commit to tennis and at age 13 moved 600 kilometres (400 miles) away from his family to Bordighera on the Italian Riviera to start his long march to the elite levels of the game.
Meanwhile Iga Swiatek suffered her worst defeat in two years as Jelena Ostapenko breezed past the world number two in straight sets to reach the Qatar Open final.
Ostapenko needed just and hour and eight minutes to wrap up a 6-3 6-1 victory over the five-time Grand Slam champion in Doha.
The last time Swiatek was on the wrong end of such a one-sided match was a 6-2 6-2 loss to Elena Rybakina at Indian Wells in March 2023.
Ostapenko will play Amanda Anisimova in Saturday’s final after the American beat Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3 6-3.