Following WADA’s appeal to CAS on September 26th, Jannik Sinner released a statement. “I am disappointed to hear that WADA has chosen to appeal the result of my ITIA hearing..,” wrote the World No. 1. The Italian highlighted that over the past few months, there have been three separate hearings, each confirming his innocence. It’s been a week since and several tennis experts have weighed in on this issue. Now, Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, has added her voice to the discussion.

Previously during an interview with ESPN, Stubbs stated that unfortunately, the doping scandal will follow Jannik Sinner throughout his career. However, she added that Sinner will have a full investigation exonerating him of any wrongdoing and proving his innocence. During the recent episode of ‘The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast’, Stubbs sat down with Caitlin Thompson to discuss the solution for the Jannik Sinner steroid saga.

Stubbs expressed her annoyance over repetitive asks of judgment for this case: “It’s like, what? So you get three different independent judges now to look at it, even though three independent judges already looked at it from the ITIA or whatever.” Stubbs further questioned, “When you think about this…WADA comes in and says…How bad does it look to ITIA? Like, what are we doing people?” Even Thompson shared a few words on this during the conversation.

According to Caitlin Thompson, “It is baffling, but not out of character for tennis, of course, to have yet another to your point…independent, another independent review that’s in conflict the original independent review and another governing body that has something different to say than the original.” Thompson said that she feels all these things would be solved if tennis had proper leadership and it was consolidated. Two other tennis legends shared a strong opinion on WADA’s appeal recently.

Navratilova labeled WADA as “a mess“ while sharing her opinions on the recent appeal. She tweeted, “This is n-ts. WADA is a mess. The Chinese swimmers walk and now this? What a bad system we have.” Another American legend, Andy Roddick, also defended Jannik Sinner and said that he wasn’t a fool to take performance-enhancing drugs on purpose and put his career under some real threat. But what does the road look like from here?

Jannik Sinner learns when appeal verdict in his anti-doping case is likely to arrive

According to the Italian newspaper, ‘la Repubblica’, the verdict of the CAS on Jannik Sinnee’s case could arrive in 2025. They also stated that the ruling will “probably” come in February. Moreover, the newspaper reported that the three-arbitrator panel hearing WADA’s appeal will include one arbitrator chosen by CAS, one by WADA, and one by Sinner. How will this impact Sinner’s ability to play?

Sinner is now free to play for the rest of the season in 2024. He will perhaps also participate in the 2025 AO in January, before getting the chance to learn the final outcome of this case. Sinner secured his maiden major title at the 2024 Australian Open.

Despite facing challenges off the court, the 23-year-old had an impressive season, winning six titles, including two Grand Slam championships. Sinner is now competing against Carlos Alcaraz in the China Open Finals. Given his recent success, do you think Sinner can end the year on a high note with more titles and maintain this momentum into the next year?