Novak Djokovic Admits To Being 'Frustrated' By Jannik Sinner's Doping Case
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Novak Djokovic shared his honest thoughts about Jannik Sinner's doping case after his arrival in Australia.
The 37-year-old Serbian has been competing on the ATP Tour for two decades, and he has seen probably everything during his time in professional sports.
One thing, however, that he hasn't experienced until this year is two World No. 1 players testing positive for a banned substance in a span of a few months.
Because of that, it's not surprising that the tennis world has been talking about those two cases since they were made public. First was Jannik Sinner's case, which was later followed by that of Iga Swiatek.
While the ATP World No. 1 player avoided any punishment, the former WTA World No. 1 was suspended for a month. However, Sinner's case is still not over, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will decide it after an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Novak Djokovic, who is the most experienced and most successful player on the ATP Tour right now, could be considered a leading voice at the moment, especially since he has formed the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA).
Because of that, he obviously had something he wanted to say about these doping cases, even though he has previously already made brief comments.
Of course, for Djokovic, the more relevant case is that of Sinner, and after his arrival in Australia ahead of his return to the Brisbane International, the 24-time Grand Slam champion spoke about it.
"It's not a good image and not a good look for our sport. You don't want to see that. I believe that in the last 20-plus years that I've been playing on the professional tour that we've been one of the cleanest sports. I'll keep believing in that clean sport."
Of course, Djokovic doesn't have any personal issues with Sinner, and he also doesn't think that the Italian player intentionally doped. The 37-year-old player has known his much younger rival for years, and he believes doping is not something he would do.
"I'm not questioning whether he took the banned substance intentionally or not. I believe in a clean sport, I believe that the player will do everything possible to be playing fair. I've known Jannik since he was very young. He doesn't strike me as somebody who would do such a thing."
However, the fact that Djokovic believes that Sinner didn't dope doesn't mean that the Serbian player doesn't have an issue with the 23-year-old's case. According to the 10-time Australian Open champion, the problem lies within the system.
"I'm just questioning the way the system works, really, and why certain players are not treated the same as other players."
"The issue is the inconsistency and the transparency. We've been kept in the dark with Jannik's case. I've been really frustrated as (have) most of the other players to see that we've been kept in the dark for five months."
