Tennis, a sport with such a clear hierarchy of haves and have-nots that it resembles a medieval feudal system, is once again under scrutiny for its approach to fear and favor.
Saturday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that it had reached a case resolution agreement with men’s world No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner. Sinner will serve a three-month ban for two positive doping tests, a resolution which, its most vocal critics claim, is the latest and most egregious example of a two-tier system working in the interests of the sport’s favorites.
Instead of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing scheduled for mid-April that the world thought would decide the Italian’s fate, a WADA press release delivered the verdict on the case that has dominated the top of tennis since August. Sinner will miss four ATP Masters 1,000 tournaments, including the European Open in Cologne, the final of the ATP Champions Tour in Turin, and the Paris Masters, and lose 2,100 ranking points, but crucially he will not miss any Grand Slams.
“I don’t believe in a clean sport anymore,” wrote three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka on X. Feliciano Lopez, Spain’s former world No. 12, responded in defense of Sinner: “He’s taking full responsibility for the mistakes of others. A longer suspension would have made the sport cleaner? I don’t think so.”
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