World No. 1 Jannik Sinner — who escaped suspension despite two failed drug tests — reiterated it was an accident that a banned substance found its way into his body.
And Friday he confirmed he parted ways with the staffers who gave it to him.
The Italian jettisoned fitness coach Umberto Ferrara and physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi after they were deemed responsible for his positive tests in March.
“Now, because of these mistakes, I’m not feeling that confident to continue with them,” the 23-year-old Sinner said. “The only thing I just need right now, just some clean air. I was struggling a lot in the last months. Now I was waiting for the result, and now I just need some clean air.”
Sinner has a chance to get that fresh air as the top seed in this U.S. Open.
He comes in off a title at Cincinnati, and more importantly, having escaped a ban.
He met the press for the first time since the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) released both the doping results and its ruling Tuesday.
Sinner tested positive for low levels of clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid on March 10 and March 18.
But the ITIA said an independent panel held a hearing Aug. 15 and found the traces of the substance were a “result of contamination from a support team member, who had been applying an over-the-counter spray containing clostebol to their own skin to treat a small wound.”
Ferrara bought the spray, and Naldi had used it on himself before massaging — and thus contaminating — Sinner.
“Of course I was worried because it was the first time for me, and hopefully the last time I am in this situation,” Sinner said. “Also, we have to see is the amount I had in my body, which is 0.000000001, so there are a lot of zeroes before coming up a 1. So I was worried, of course, because I’m always the player who was working very carefully in this. I believe I’m a fair player on and off the court.”
But will his foes see him as fair? Or the process?
While he insists “there is no shortcut, there is no different treatment” due to his rank, Nick Kyrgios and Denis Shapovalov have criticized what they see as a double standard.
“I know sometimes the frustration of other players, obviously,” said Sinner, who could face Americans in three of the first four rounds and opens Tuesday against American Mackie McDonald.
He knows his reputation could take a hit.
“It might change a couple of things. But whoever knows me very well knows I haven’t done — and I would never do — something that goes against the rules,” Sinner said. “Let’s see. Here I also know who is my friend and who is not my friend; because my friends, they know that I would never do that, and sticking together. About the reputation, we will see now moving forward, no? Because this, I can’t really control. So let’s see.”
