World No. 1 Jannik Sinner accepts three-month ban for positive dope test, eligible for French Open return | Tennis News

Tennis world number one Jannik Sinner has accepted a three-month ban for doping having tested positive for a banned substance last year following a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), it said on Saturday.
WADA had appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against an independent tribunal’s decision in August to clear Sinner of wrongdoing after he failed drug tests.
Sinner had tested positive for anabolic agent Clostebol which he said had entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy. The case was set to be heard CAS in April.”Mr Sinner will serve his period of ineligibility from 9 February 2025 to 11:59 pm on 4 May 2025,” WADA said in a statement, which will make him eligible to return before the French Open that will begin on May 25 this year. “Mr Sinner may return to official training activity from 13 April 2025.”
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WADA has formally withdrawn its appeal to CAS after they reached a settlement.
An in-competition test at the Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells last year in which Sinner lost in the semifinal, conducted the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on March 10, 2024 found an ‘adverse analytical finding’ (AAF) for Clostebol. A second test, that took place out of competition on March 18 also detected the substance.
In tennis, testing positive for non-specified substances on the WADA l, like Clostebol, carries a mandatory provisional suspension. The benchmark sanction, per the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) decision, is a four-year suspension. Nevertheless as Per ITIA rules, athletes are allowed to immediately appeal the provisional suspensions after being notified of the violation, and the suspension can be removed if the player is able to prove that the violation took place due to a contaminated product
The Italian was suspended from April 4 to April 5, days after winning the Miami Masters, and also between April 17 and April 20, shortly after he was knocked out of the semifinal of the Monte Carlo Masters and a week before he played his next tournament in Madrid. Both times, his suspensions were revoked after his appeals were successful.
With Reuters inputs/strong>
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