In light of Jannik Sinner's doping saga, Taylor Fritz was asked about it ahead of the 2024 US Open, and he shared his thoughts on the matter.
The ATP's World No. 1 and his doping saga will largely mark this year's US Open. It's occupied most of the headlines in recent days, which is unusual for arguably the second most prestigious Grand Slam.
Generally, players talk about the draw, but it's mostly Sinner and his doping saga these days. It's only natural because the Italian is the reigning world number one. A few months ago, he tested positive for a banned substance, clostebol.
However, a thorough investigation concluded recently that found him innocent. Sinner's accidental contamination is shocking but not that surprising. Those things do happen and have happened before, but how the whole situation was handled created some questions.
The process was kept quiet until he was cleared, which apparently is procedural, but some players still had issues with it. Nick Kyrgios took to social media to express his opinion on the matter.
As expected, many players were asked about it during their press conference ahead of the US Open, including Fritz, who backed Sinner but expressed some reservations about the whole process.
"I mean, it's tough to say. You know, everyone is going to have, I guess, their own -- everyone is going to have their own opinion, but it's pretty irrelevant at the end of the day, because the truth of the matter is always going to be between him and his team. You know, I trust that whoever, like, the whole investigative process was done properly."
One thing Fritz did mention was the consistency of the process, which, at times, can get a bit blurry. He used the example of players getting banned for missing tests. Other players have mentioned this in the past because missed tests happen, and while hard, it's not impossible to miss three.
"I think the only thing I will say is I think there's a lot of people that get suspended and can't play for a while because they either missed their tests, like the random testing -- which, by the way, whatever someone might tell you, like, it's not that hard to miss a test or two. So people get banned off missing three of those."
In the end, Fritz does believe in Sinner's innocence because he has no reason to question it. However, he would still love more consistency when it comes to these rulings, as these days, they seem to be a bit different depending on who is making them.
"I guess in this ruling they found that it's different and there's no ban, and I trust that he wasn't, you know, at fault or purposely doing anything. I just think that it should be consistent across the board with bans and who gets banned, who doesn't get banned, who gets suspended, who doesn't get suspended."
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