Jannik Sinner: Nick Kyrgios, Denis Shapovalov among Tour players ...

Nick Kyrgios has led criticism of a decision to clear Jannik Sinner of wrongdoing following two failed drugs tests, while others have defended the process followed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).

A lengthy report accepted Sinner’s reasoning that Naldi had been using a product which contains clostebol to treat a cut on his own hand.

The reaction from the tennis community has been mixed, given Sinner was allowed to continue playing and that the case was not made public until Tuesday, August 20. Sinner’s results, ranking points and prize money have been taken away from Indian Wells, where he reached the semi-finals.

“I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me,” Sinner said in a statement. 

“I will continue to do everything I can to continue to comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping programme and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance."

But Kyrgios questioned the ruling, writing on X: “Whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance, you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced."

The case has echoes of the situation which led to Cahill's former player Simona Halep being given an initial four-year ban, which was reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The two-time Grand Slam champion twice tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat, arguing she had ingested it through a contaminated supplement.

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov, currently ranked 105 in the world, said he “can’t imagine what every other player that got banned for contaminated substances is feeling right now” before claiming there are “different rules for different players”.

Britain’s Liam Broady said “plenty of players go through the same thing and have to wait months or years for their innocence to be declared”, referencing the fact that Sinner was allowed to play on, while others have not been.

But retired Australian John Millman said he was “appalled” by how the cases of Halep and Britain’s Tara Moore - who also won an appeal after a positive test from contamination - were dealt with and praised the ITIA for how they handled the Sinner situation.

“Before jumping to conclusions, Jannik Sinner had less than a billionth of a gram in his system,” he said on X.

“I believe him 100%. Maybe we should change threshold cater for contamination. Finally, why the uproar for this when we allow athletes in all sports, including tennis, to abuse TUE’s (therapeutic use exemptions).

“Furthermore, the ITIA handled this 1000x better than the butcher job with Simona. Jannik is about as good a person that exists on tour. At least read the report before you pass judgement."

Sinner's current lead coach is Darren Cahill, and the Australian shared his views on the situation.

"He [Sinner] is a great kid, he's incredibly professional - he's maybe the most professional young man that I've ever had the chance to work with," Cahill told ESPN.

"He would never, ever intentionally do anything and he's in a situation which is incredibly unfortunate. The truth came out - there's no fault, no negligence, and hopefully he can get this behind him now, continue to play and get better.

"I feel really bad for him, because he doesn't deserve this. It stayed quiet because we believed he was innocent and there was no fault.

"We were all interviewed, even last week. Jannik was on a call for six and a half hours with sport resolutions, there was a lot riding on the fact that if this got out without context, this was not great either.

"We've been living this for the last few months. It's been really, really difficult for him and I take my hat off that he's been able to post some of the results that he has, but there have been days where you can see that physically and emotionally he's been challenged on the court."

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