Serena Williams says she is a staunch supporter of Jannik Sinner despite claiming she would have received a harsher sentence if she had committed the same anti-doping violation as him.
Sinner, who is the current men’s world No.1, is serving a three-month suspension from the Tour related to two failed doping tests last year. The Italian twice tested positive for the banned steroid clostebol but was cleared of wrongdoing by a panel of three independent experts who concluded that he had no fault. The panel accepted Sinner’s explanation that his former physio was using a spray for a cut on his hand that contained clostebol and he unintentionally contaminated him during treatment.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) then launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) arguing that Sinner had a degree of fault as he is responsible for ensuring those he hires in his team are following the right protocols. WADA initially said they were seeking a ban of up to two years before reaching a case settlement with the tennis star’s legal team that resulted in him getting banned for three months. His suspension will end shortly before this year’s Italian Masters and he hasn’t missed any Grand Slam events.
“I love the guy, I love this game. He’s great for the sport.” Williams said of Sinner during an interview with Time Magazine.
However, the 24-time Grand Slam champion has questioned the fairness of Sinner’s suspension, saying she would have had Grand Slams ‘taken away’ if the same happened to her. There have been previous accusations of double standards concerning this case with some claiming that Sinner’s status and ability to afford top-level lawyers enabled him to get a lighter sentence.
“I’ve been put down so much, I don’t want to bring anyone down,” Williams continued.
“If I did that, I would have gotten 20 years. Let’s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me.”
Williams also spoke about her former rival Maria Sharapova. Sharapova tested positive for the banned substance meldonium during the same year it was added to WADA’s list of banned substances. She was hit with a two-year ban before winning an appeal to reduce it to 15 months. She returned from her ban in 2017 and won just one more title before retiring in 2020.
“Just weirdly and oddly, I can’t help but think about Maria all this time,” Williams commented.
“I can’t help but feel for her.”
Sinner has stated multiple times that he has never deliberately consumed a banned substance. This has also been agreed by both the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and WADA in their reports on the case.
