Andy Roddick has attempted to shut down conspiracies about Jannik Sinner doping during this year's Australian Open and also believes his explanation about how a banned substance entered his system.
The tennis world was left stunned on Tuesday when news broke about Sinner testing positive for the banned substance clostebol on two occasions during the Indian Wells Open, where he reached the semifinal.
After a five-month investigation kept private until Tuesday, Sinner was cleared of wrongdoing and did not receive a suspension after the International Tennis Integrity Authority accepted the Italian's explanation of why he failed the tests.
The 23-year-old said his physiotherapist had traces of clostebol on his fingers from an over-the-counter spray he was using for a cut on his finger, leading to the substance entering Sinner's system without him knowing.
Sinner's version of how the positive tests occurred has received a mixed reaction from players and fans. John Millman, who famously beat Roger Federer at the 2018 US Open, said he believed Sinner 100%.
Other players were enraged by the story. Nick Kyrgios said Sinner should be banned for two years regardless of whether he took the substance deliberately, while Lucas Pouille accused the authorities of taking the players for fools.
Some fans have gone even further with their criticism of Sinner, with theories created about him being a serial doper who only won the Australian Open at the start of the year due to taking banned substances.
Roddick is unimpressed by the fans who believe this. Speaking on his podcast, he said the fact that only one billionth of a gram of clostebol was found in Sinner's system is consistent with his explanation to investigators.
"There's also a lot of noise online basically saying ‘take away his win in January. He beat my favorite player there.’ Stop. You get tested at every slam so there's no chance he was not clean at the Australian Open if he tested as much as he did. The amount in his system is one billionth of a gram, or 58,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. Which is completely consistent with the explanation."
The 2003 US Open champion also responded to those feeling Sinner's case being kept private was an example of the rules being applied selectively, saying it only goes public when a final tribunal decision is made.
“I'm gonna read a text from someone I will not name who said this after reading the 33 page document ‘A question that I had along with others initially is how did this not become public before now? I was under the impression that once you test positive it is to be made public.’ That's false... It only goes public once the final tribunal decision is handed down."
Roddick ended his comments by dismissing the notion that Sinner received preferential treatment and said the Italian followed the rules of appeal.
"So all this talk of sinister things and preferential treatment... you're a number on a bottle, you're allowed to appeal during the appeal process until you're guilty, so innocence until proven guilty is something we hear a lot. It didn't come out until a few days ago and then became a complete firestorm.”
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