SI:AM | Tennis professionals take a stand on Jannik Sinner’s lack of punishment

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I had no idea it was this easy to test positive for steroids.

Today’s SI:AM:

🎾 Tennis drama
✈️ The Jets’ O-line
🎙️ Why Brady is good in the department

With the US Open less than a week away, world number one Jannik Sinner finds himself in controversy.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday that Sinner, 23, was positive anabolic steroid twice in March at the Indian Wells tournament. But Sinner isn’t put off, and that’s got some of his tour pros ticked off.

Sinner tested low for a metabolite of Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid and the same substance as the San Diego Padres outfielder. Fernando Tatis Jr. received a positive result in August 2022which resulted in an 80-game suspension. Sinner’s first test sample was collected on March 10 after his third-round victory in Indian Wells. The second sample was collected on March 18 after the tournament ended.

Sinner’s explanation for the positive test is that his physical therapist, Giacomo Naldi, used a spray containing Clostebol to treat a wound on the finger and continued to massage Sinner, transferring the substance to the player. (Clostebol is an ingredient in an over-the-counter drug called Trofodermin in Italy.) ITIA consulted three scientific experts who agreed that Sinner’s explanation was plausible.

Because Sinner had a reasonable explanation for the positive test and did not appear to know that Naldi had taken medication containing a prohibited substance, ITIA did not suspend Sinner. However, he had to forfeit the $325,000 in prize money and 400 tournament ranking points he received for reaching the tournament semifinals.

Some of Sinner’s colleagues on the ATP tour expressed frustration that he got away with minimal punishment.

“Different rules for different players” Denis Shapovalov tweeted.

Nick Kyrgios called the situation “ridiculous” and said Sinner should have stayed for two years.

British player Liam Broady, who rose to No. 93 in the world rankings, took issue not with the fact that Sinner was suspended but with the fact that he was cleared so quickly.

Sintinen’s situation is strange. It’s natural to hear of an elite athlete who has twice tested positive for anabolic steroids and reacted like Kyrgios. The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports must be taken very seriously, and when athletes are caught doping, they should be punished accordingly. But overall, Sinner did not knowingly take any performance-enhancing drugs. The entire 33-page report ITIA details how Sinner’s fitness trainer, Umberto Ferrara, bought a medicinal spray containing Clostebol and suggested Naldi use it to treat the wound. ITIA even went so far as to ask Ferrara to produce bank documents showing that he bought the spray at a pharmacy in Bologna, Italy. Additionally, the levels of the Clostebol metabolite in Sinner’s system were so low that they could not have had any performance-enhancing effects, the report stated.

The timing of the announcement also means that the story is unlikely to die down anytime soon. It came one day after Sinner won the Cincinnati Open, and he’ll be the No. 1 seed when the US Open begins Monday in Queens, where he’s sure to have plenty of questions about the test and how quickly he was cleared.

… things I saw last night:

5. Creative way A’s players decided their fantasy football subscription.
4. Shakira Austin pump fake and a passing blouse. (And his little dance after the bucket.)
3. Weird basic rule twofold in the Astros-Red Sox game. (It was really a duplicate of the basic rule, not what should technically be called an automatic double.)
2. by Jake Meyers home corridor robbery.
1. Angels closer Ben Joyce Game over by Bobby Witt Jr. He threw three pitches, all over 103 mph.