McEnroe Wants To Believe Sinner Despite Finding His Doping Explanation Bizarre
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Seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe leans on the side of believing Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek in their doping cases despite how strange Sinner's explanation of his contamination sounds.
Four months have passed since Sinner's doping case was made public. It has cast a shadow over an incredible season on-court for the Italian, including his first two Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open.
Sinner twice tested positive for the prohibited substance clostebol at March's Indian Wells Open. After the initial shock of the news, the ATP world No. 1 and his team swiftly found where the contamination took place.
How quickly Sinner identified the source of the contamination meant the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) kept its five-month investigation into the case private until eventually clearing him of wrongdoing.
The ITIA accepted Sinner's explanation that the clostebol entered his system accidentally after his physiotherapist gave him massages after using a spray that contained tiny traces of the banned substance.
Unfortunately for Sinner, the World Anti-Doping Agency disagrees with the ITIA's verdict. It appealed the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A ruling will be reached sometime in 2024, but an exact date has not been provided yet.
Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine from an out-of-competition sample she submitted in August. The four-time French Open received a provisional suspension by the ITIA on September 12th.
However, Swiatek had that ban lifted 22 days later after further testing proved that melatonin tablets she bought were contaminated with trimetazidine. The WTA world No. 2's appeal within ten days of being provisionally suspended meant her investigation was also kept private.
There has been a polarized reaction to the cases. Nick Kyrgios has repeatedly expressed outrage and thinks all players who test positive for a banned substance should receive an automatic two-year suspension.
Although the most vocal, Kyrgios is not the only unhappy player. Denis Shapovalov was particularly angry about how the governing bodies handled both cases and feels players at the top get easier treatment because they can afford expensive teams to help them.
Others have been more defensive of Sinner and Swiatek. The Italian Davis Cup captain said a ban for Sinner would be one of the biggest injustices in sports history, while Andy Roddick does not believe what Swiatek did should be considered doping.
McEnroe recently appeared on an episode of Roddick's podcast. The four-time US Open champion admitted how the clostebol entered Sinner's system sounds odd, but said he wants to believe him and Swiatek.
"As someone who loves to see sports played at a high level, it would be an absolute shame to think that either of these two players would be involved in something like that."
"Sometimes when you hear the stories, you’re like: ‘What? Really? The masseur had a cut and gave it [the spray] and then you massage it and there somehow happened.’ But you know I’m on the side of willing to go with it."
"I want to believe the player because I don’t know, like you know they said at the US Open a millionth of something in the system….I don’t know what one millionth is, it sounds like absolutely nothing but you know, I don’t know. So, I’m not the right guy to ask – I’m just hopeful that this is something that doesn’t plague our sport."
