Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek might feel aggrieved in their respective doping cases after the World Anti-Doping Agency agreed to a rule change that would have likely cleared both players.
Tennis fans were left understandably shocked after discovering Sinner and Swiatek tested positive for banned substances this year, but the details of the cases show neither player did so intentionally.
Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after testing positive for a tiny amount of the banned substance trimetazidine from an out-of-competition sample submitted on August 12th.
The five-time Grand Slam champion received a provisional suspension on September 12th but had it lifted on October 4th after successfully proving melatonin, a legal product, had been contaminated with trimetazidine.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) could still appeal Swiatek's case. However, its chief's recent admission that the anti-doping regime has a problem of picking up negligible amounts of banned substances indicates it might not do so.
Sinner twice tested positive for a tiny amount of the prohibited substance clostebol at March's Indian Wells. After a private five-month investigation, the ITIA cleared him of wrongdoing after accepting his explanation.
The ATP World No. 1 proved that his physiotherapist at the time gave him massages without gloves after using a spray for a cut finger that he did not realize contained small traces of clostebol, leading to it entering Sinner's system.
Despite not disputing Sinner's version of events, WADA still appealed his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing he bore more fault than the ITIA found. A ruling on the appeal will be reached sometime in 2025.
WADA's agreed rule change, set to take effect on January 1st, 2027, could leave Sinner and Swiatek feeling harshly treated. This is especially true for Sinner since his case was appealed and has caused him much anxiety.
The concept of a 'contaminated product' will change to a 'contaminated source' from the start of 2024. Had the rules been in effect, Sinner and Swiatek's cases would have been impacted.
WADA's upcoming new definition of a contaminated source includes exposure to a prohibited substance from a third party, which would apply to Sinner since the third party, in his case, would have been his physiotherapist.
It also includes ingestion of a medicine containing the prohibited substance, which is not specified on the label. That would apply to Swiatek since a drug manufacturer did not include trimetazidine in the ingredients of the melatonin it sold to her.
Well-known tennis journalist and commentator Jose Morgado commented on X (formerly Twitter) that WADA appealing Sinner's case when the body decided a rule change in such cases was necessary seems odd.
"Interesting rule change from WADA that will avoid things like what happened with Sinner and Swiatek… Odd that they appealed against Sinner and now changed the rule…"
The upcoming rule change would make a suspension for Sinner even more controversial. His nerves might have increased after a well-known sports lawyer predicted he would receive a ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.