Andy Murray’s ex-coach laments ‘lack of camaraderie’ in tennis after Jannik Sinner’s controversial doping ban

Jannik Sinner's doping ban has divided the tennis world, and many critics accused WADA of giving the World No.1 preferential treatment.

Andy Murray’s ex-coach laments ‘lack of camaraderie’ in tennis after Jannik Sinner’s controversial doping ban

Jannik Sinner (Image via ATP/X)

Andy Murray‘s former coach Daniel Vallverdu joined the debate about Jannik Sinner‘s controversial doping ban and explained why he thinks the Italian is not all to be blamed for failing the drug test. Sinner has been handed a three-month ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for the negligence of his team members.

Sinner tested positive for clostebol twice in March last year and in spite of the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) no-fault and negligence verdict, the WADA demanded before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that he should be banned for one to two years. As the CAS verdict loomed, WADA approached Sinner’s lawyers twice to resolve the case.

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WADA then withdrew their CAS appeal and handed Sinner a three-month ban, which shocked the tennis community, as they accused the anti-doping body of handing Sinner a lenient punishment because he’s a top tennis player. Vallverdu, who also coached Stan Wawrinka, wants the tennis community to provide their support to Sinner amid the tough time.

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After giving it some days to digest the reaction from the tennis world regarding @janniksin ban – i would like to say that im saddened by the lack of camaraderie – most not focusing on the facts of the case. The real losers here are JS and Tennis.

Daniel Vallverdu wrote on X

Check out his post here:

Vallverdu said he knows Sinner since the World No.1 was 14 years old and is convinced that the three-time Grand Slam champion is not all at fault. The 38-year-old, however, criticized the anti-doping agencies, accusing them of lacking consistency and accuracy.

Jannik Sinner was last seen in action at Australian Open

Jannik Sinner has played just one tournament this year- the Australian Open. After adding eight ATP titles to his trophy cabinet last year, Sinner played two exhibition events Down Under before entering the Australian Open.

Jannik Sinner
Jannik Sinner (Image via ATP/X)

Sinner beat Nicolas Jarry to kickstart his campaign at the Melbourne Slam. He went all the way to the final and denied World No.2 Alexander Zverev his first Major trophy with a straight-set win to clinch his third Grand Slam title, following last year’s Australian Open and the US Open.

Sinner then flew back to Italy to rest and chose not to defend the ATP Rotterdam Open. He then started training for the Middle East Swing and arrived in Doha for the Qatar Open, but had to withdraw because WADA had announced that he would be banned for three months.

Because of the ban, he will miss several ATP Masters 1000 events. His ban will end on May 4 and he could make his comeback at the Italian Open, which is scheduled to start on May 7.