Order in the 🎾Court

You're referring to Article 10.8.2 Case Resolution Agreement. That Article refers to Articles 10.1-10.7, none of which allow for a 3 mo ban in Sinner's case. There is a specific rule for flexible sanction in contaminated supplement cases. WADA must feel there is some wiggle room in here somewhere.

The only weird thing here is the rules don't seem to provide the flexibility for a 3 month suspension in these circumstances. It's either no ban or 1-2 yrs. Hopefully this is a signal WADA sees the problem with its rules.

About Halep, her positive test was preceded by a negative test 3 days before. Whatever the source of the roxadustat, it's unlikely such short exposure would produce any meaningful effect. Assuming rox is a PED, it would take weeks of dosing at recommended doses for any clinical effect to manifest.

Maybe WADA could try to explain the logic of how punishing the victim of an accidental exposure will do anything to deter intentional dopers. 🤔

Sinner's case is not unequivocally incorrect under the current rules. Other cases involving contamination by personal contact also resulted in no suspension. The only difference for Sinner is that he was in a work setting during the event, whereas previous cases involved social situations.

I've been compiling the numbers on tennis player suspensions for ADRV. Most (76%) are 0-12 months for unintentional ADRV. So 12-24 months suspension is on the long side. Four years is only for intentional violations, which does not apply to Sinner.

Any thoughts on whether Jannik Sinner getting a lengthy suspension from CAS would prompt the powers that be in tennis to take a stand with WADA and finally say enough is enough with blindly applying rules, just for the sake of rules?

No fault or negligence (N F/N) or no significant fault or negligence (NS F/N) in tennis doping cases. All cases of supplement contamination=NS F/N. All cases of exposure by personal contact, like Sinner, were N F/N. So ITIA decision in Sinner's case is consistent with precedent.

It could be that, in addition to lower ranked players lacking the resources to have a team that helps minimize inadvertent exposure risk and/or to hire the high caliber legal team needed to fight the doping charge.

Archer obviously has a lot on her plate. But it would be nice to hear of any efforts to address all the collateral damage to players and image of the game from draconian anti-doping rules. Also applies to ATP, ITF, etc. It just seems tennis acquiesces to whatever WADA dictates, even if it's wrong.

Nice synopsis. So unfortunate that Halep fell victim to the anti-doping regime at the end of her career. The system is just a wrecking ball that needlessly destroys the reputations of many innocent athletes in pursuit of a few bad apples. There are much more effective and fair ways to police doping.

Courtney, Please add this account to one of your starter packs. I started the account to comment on and combat some of the myths and disinformation about doping in tennis. Thank you!

Analysis of 70 tennis doping violations 2001-2024 (excluding recreational drugs). Median career high ranking of 16 players with intentional violations = 386. Median career high ranking of 54 players with unintentional violations = 29. Based on publicly available information.