Martina Navratilova has expressed strong disapproval of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after it appealed the verdict in Jannik Sinner’s doping case. In August, Sinner was cleared by an independent tribunal after testing positive for minuscule amounts of Clostebol, a banned substance. The tribunal concluded that the contamination occurred unintentionally due to mistakes by Sinner’s fitness team, leading to his exoneration for “no fault or negligence.”
However, WADA recently appealed this decision, seeking a suspension for the world No. 1, despite not disputing the unintentional contamination. This move left Navratilova outraged, especially given WADA’s previous decision not to appeal a similar case involving 23 Chinese swimmers.
“This is nuts. WADA is a mess,” Navratilova stated on X, pointing to what she called a double standard. She added, “The Chinese swimmers walk and now this? What a bad system we have.”
This is nuts. WADA is a mess. The Chinese swimmers walk and now this? What a bad system we have … https://t.co/XsvSzbUogD
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) September 30, 2024
Navratilova questioned how athletes are expected to police every detail, such as the products used by their physiotherapists, emphasizing that Sinner’s case “clearly wasn’t cheating.”
It literally would never have occurred to me to ask what cream or oil my massage therapist uses, if that is how it got into his system…
This clearly wasn’t cheating…yikes.— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) September 30, 2024
Sinner in Beijing, ranking, and results in 2024
Currently the world no.1, the Italian has a composed 58-5 match record in 2024. Sinner is playing in Beijing where he defeated the world no.28 Nicolas Jarry 4-6 6-3 6-1, the world no.69 Roman Safiullin 3-6 6-2 6-3 and the world no.37 Jiri Lehecka 6-2 7-6(6).
Jannik Sinner will play the world no.96 Bu Yunchaokete in the semifinal on Tuesday at 7:00 pm on LOTUS. They have never played each other until now on the main tour.
Sinner conquered 6 titles in 2024 at the Australian Open, Rotterdam, Miami, Halle, Cincinnati and U.S. Open.
The Italian won 17 titles in his career: 8 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts, 7 on indoor courts and 1 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
He is also scheduled to play in Paris (Rolex Paris Masters). The main draw will start on the 28th of October.
Jannik Sinner |
Embed from Getty Images |