Imagine being Jannik Sinner. One minute you’re the first Italian to finish the year(2024) as the world’s number one ranked tennis player. The next, you’re caught up in a doping scandal. It all started in March 2024 with traces of Clostebol – twice!– apparently from a massage cream applied by your former physiotherapist. What followed was a legal back-and-forth between the ITIA and WADA, turning into five months of uncertainty. Now, even though he avoided a potential 1-2 year ban, Sinner received a three months sanction this past Saturday. And as the dust settles, Andy Roddick, a long-time supporter of Sinner, is raising a serious question: Was WADA’s timing deliberate?

On a February 15th episode of his podcast “Served,” Andy Roddick and Jon Wertheim discussed the 90-day suspension handed down to Jannik Sinner. They seemed surprised by the length of the suspension, especially considering that WADA had initially proposed a much longer ban of one to two years.

“If you could handpick a date right, it’s I’m gonna start this I don’t know 10 days after the Aussie Open and I’m gonna end it not even right before the French Open, right before I make my return to Rome in the Masters 1000 there like you could not have handpicked a better sweet spot for Jannik Sinner to take this deal which is either you know strange or it’ the you know best coincidences that’s ever happened to the Sinner team,” said the former ATP No.1.

Roddick added, “I tend to believe that Jannik at least was acting in good faith the entire time now. This whole thing with the you play the first major you win it and then you take a little you know Siesta and then you continue on with a week you know or a warmup tournament in Rome and then you don’t miss a major.” He tried to accept it as “a good fortune for the Sinner team,” yet he found “the timeline is borderline laughable.”

Back in November 2024, when the doping controversy was fresh, the 2003 US Open champion refuted the claims of Sinner’s active involvement in his doping ordeal. “I can’t believe for the life of me that he’d risk his career for something with no benefit. That’s not just my opinion—that’s science, if we still trust it. If someone was going to dope, they’d go all in, especially someone with Sinner’s resources. It’s a crappy situation. Is he at fault? Maybe, but intent matters. It’s a shame for tennis,” Roddick said. However, Roddick isn’t the first one to criticize WADA’s timeline.

“Glad it wasn’t more than 3 months but ooofff what a freakin joke Wada is…. Will explain in a couple of days,” wrote Serena Williams’ former coach on X yesterday. Interestingly, Daniil Medvedev said, “I hope that from now on everyone can talk to WADA and if they tell you: ‘we found this, it’s been two years’, you answer: ‘no, I want one month’. I hope it will set a precedent. Otherwise, it would be strange,” he said sarcastically.

Along with these not-ending-soon-criticisms, the 2024 US Open champion will miss four ATP 1000 tournaments: Indian Wells, Miami Open, Madrid Open, and Monte Carlo Masters. And while he will lose 1600 ranking points, Sinner’s ATP No. 1 throne remained intact. His closest rival Alexander Zverev is still trailing behind by 3695 points, needing to perform quite well at the upcoming events to dethrone the Italian.

Jannik Sinner’s innocence was something that Andy Roddick believed from the beginning. Last August, he brought the example of an ITF player to show how the authorities are stricter with the ATP No. 1 than others.

Andy Roddick brings Marco Bortolotti’s case to defend Jannik Sinner

Marco Bortolotti, an Italian tennis player’s ordeal took place during an ATP Challenger in Lison on October 4th, 2023. Bortolotti provided a urine sample for the competition and tested positive with Clostebol. He was charged with Anti Doping Rule Violation following a laboratory analysis of the B sample on 2nd February 2024.

On 5th February, the Italian player accepted the ordeal but presented an explanation of involuntary consumption. His results, prize money, and rank points received from the ATP Challenger Lisbon were disqualified. However, the case was made public on March 21st, 2024, highlighting ITIA’s statement that he “bore no fault or negligence.”

Contrasting this matter with Sinner’s case, Roddick said, “I’d have totally gotten it and understood if Sinner had been suspended. It would’ve just flown in the face of the latest judgement they’d made for a much lower ranked/profile player for the same result from the same substance ….. recent precedent would’ve been thrown aside,” in August last year.

“You’re actually wrong. I feel that Sinners fate was decided by a ruling on a little known challenger tour player for the same substance a couple of months before. Tough to be tougher on Sinner for same offense/story,” he added further.

Nevertheless, Jannik Sinner will make a return at the Italian Open, which begins May 6th. And as the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation president Angelo Binaghi puts it: “all of Italy” eagerly anticipates his return in Rome.