5 titles, 1 Grand Slam, 2 failed doping tests – what do they equal to? In an objective world of sports, pundits believe they should result in strict punishment. In today’s subjective world of sports though, specifically tennis, Jannik Sinner seems to have gotten away with a slap on the wrist. Sure, he got stripped of 400 ranking points and forfeited the $325,000 in prize money for reaching the semifinals at Indian Wells. But he’s still the World No. 1 and active on the circuit. However, to one tennis expert, this is not an easily digestible fact.

Doping expert Prof. Dr. Fritz Sörgel sat down with SPORT1 to give insights into the latest scandal that has rocked the tennis community. From his POV, Sinner should receive a much stricter punishment. “If someone tests positive for clostebol, they are automatically banned. The order after a positive test that is questioned is to go to the national anti-doping agency, to WADA, to CAS. So how can Sinner be acquitted by a court?” asks Dr. Sörgel.

An independent tribunal ruled that Sinner bears “no fault or negligence”. It was his team, physio Giacomo Naldi and physical trainer Umberto Ferrara, who began this series of unfortunate events. But WADA told AFP on Wednesday that it “reserves the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)”. 

Dr. Sörgel continued, “We have never had a case like that before. In the case of the handball goalkeeper Portner, the handball association tried this, the handball association’s arbitration tribunal acquitted him and the NADA promptly appealed to CAS. The Sinner case took place outside the WADA rules. I don’t understand that.”

On June 26, Swiss handball player Nikola Portner was released from suspension by the HBL. He had tested positive for a small amount of methamphetamine and was suspended for two and a half months. In Sinner’s case, there’s no sign of an upcoming ban because his team appealed the case on time, perhaps. He will play in the upcoming US Open as well.

When the Sport1 interviewer asked Dr. Sörgel, “Does the matter have a strange aftertaste for you?” The doping expert answered, “Definitely, that stinks to high heaven. This method of making excuses that it is absorbed through the skin has been increasingly used recently. And this is another case.”

Well, Sinner’s compatriot Stefano Battaglino had given similar reasoning after he tested positive for metabolites of clostebol on 14 September 2022 from an M15 tournament in Morocco. He requested a hearing before an independent tribunal convened by Sport Resolutions, which took place in October 2023. Battaglino explained that “his violation was unintentional and that his sanction should be further reduced on grounds of no fault or negligence or no significant fault or negligence,” per Tennis365.

However, it was insufficient evidence for the tribunal, resulting in a four-year ban for Battaglino, even though in both his and Sinner’s case, the traces of Clostebol were ‘very low.’ It should perhaps be noted that Battaglino’s ATP singles career-high ranking is 760.

Now, another interesting thing to note is that the connection between Clostebol and Italian players is not new. In fact, some studies have found that athletes from Italia might have a bad rep when it comes to doping.

Jannik Sinner is not the only athlete from Italy to have tested positive for Clostebol

In Dec 2015, Reuters reported that Italian anti-doping authorities had called for bans on a total of 26 athletes. In 2017, WADA revealed that Italian athletes stood at the top of the most confirmed anti-doping rule violations at 171. By sport, tennis was not in the top 5, but the overall numbers were still staggering.

Then in May this year, Honest Sport released a compilation of two specifics that we have found in most headlines in the last two days – ‘clostebol’ and ‘Italian’ players. “Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes have tested positive for clostebol despite the fact it is scarcely produced in oral or injectable form by pharmaceutical companies,” wrote Edmund Willison.

Two junior tennis players, Matilde Paoletti and Mariano Tammaro, tested positive for clostebol within three months of each other. Both had come in contact with the substance through the family but faced serious consequences nonetheless. But then last year, luck favored Marco Bortolotti as he escaped a doping ban even after testing positive for Clostebol, much like Jannik Sinner.

While the debate continues as to what actually happened with Jannik Sinner and if he deserves a stricter punishment, what are your overall thoughts on doping in sports? What could be the reason behind so many Italian athletes testing positive for Clostebol?