One of the initial questions regarding Jannik Sinner's doping controversy was about the impact it would have on the World No. 1 ranking, and that has now been clarified.
Sinner failed two drug tests in March while competing in the Indian Wells tournament. He tested positive for clostebol, which is a banned anabolic steroid in tennis.
The Italian was provisionally suspended twice after the Miami Open when he was informed of this calamity, but only for a few days as he immediately appealed, and the temporary ban was lifted to allow him to compete as an independent tribunal investigated the case.
It was only on Tuesday this week, almost 24 hours after Sinner captured the Cincinnati Open title, that the news of Sinner's positive drug tests became public after the International Tenis Integrity Agency (ITIA) cleared him of any wrongdoing.
In truth, it wasn't Sinner's clearance decision by the tennis watchdog that became the talking point, but the processes and the failure to disclose any information regarding this shocking development for almost five months enraged tennis fans and some players.
Sinner has already tabled his statement about this ordeal. His coach, Darren Cahill, has backed him while on air in an interview with ESPN, and it will be interesting to hear what his closest rivals will say about the situation, which has rocked the tennis world to its core just days before the US Open begins.
The only sanction Sinner has faced in this case is forfeiture of ranking points and prize money he received from reaching the semifinal of Indian Wells, as confirmed by the ITIA in its press release.
He has lost 400 points and $325,000 in monetary compensation he earned from the event. American journalist Ben Rothenberg directly inquired from the ATP about how Sinner's penalty would affect the men's rankings.
"I've asked ATP what will happen re: counting Sinner (and Djokovic's) weeks at #1, a metric ATP promotes quite a bit. Because if Sinner's 400 points from IW are retroactively subtracted, which would make sense, then Djokovic would've been #1 for one additional week (last week)."
If those points were retroactively deducted from Sinner's tally (backdated to when he failed the drugs test), then he would have been on 8370 points after his unsuccessful title defense in Canada.
Now, that would have meant Djokovic, who had 8460 points after the week in Montreal (which he never competed in), would eclipse Sinner's total points and take over as World No. 1 for a record-extending 429th week.
Rothenberg has since confirmed that the ATP will not retroactively subtract the 400 points that Sinner dropped from Indian Wells. That week will count in the Italian's favor. Djokovic, therefore, will not have an additional week as World No. 1.
"Update—I got an answer from ATP: Sinner’s 400 ranking points from Indian Wells that were invalidated will *NOT* be retroactively subtracted. Last week will therefore still be counted as Jannik Sinner’s 10th at #1, not Novak Djokovic’s 429th. Can’t say I think that’s right."
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