World number one Sinner banned for three months

Jannik Sinner won the year's first Grand Slam and his third overall at the Australian Open in January

World number one Jannik Sinner has accepted an immediate three-month ban from tennis after reaching a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency over his two positive drugs tests last year.

The 23-year-old Italian, who won the Australian Open last month, is suspended from 9 February until 4 May.

He will be eligible to play at the French Open - the next Grand Slam of the year - which starts on 19 May.

Sinner had previously been cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel after testing positive for the banned substance clostebol in March.

Wada had been seeking a ban of up to two years, having launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) over the 2024 decision by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) not to suspend Sinner.

In a statement on Saturday, Wada said it accepted the three-time Grand Slam champion "did not intend to cheat", that the drug "did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit" and this happened "without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage".

It means the Cas hearing will not take place, but Sinner will serve a three-month suspension as "under the code and by virtue of Cas precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage's negligence".

In a statement released by his lawyers, Sinner said: "This case had been hanging over me for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year.

"I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise Wada's strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love.

"On that basis I have accepted Wada's offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three-month sanction."

Tennis has seen some high-profile doping cases over the past six months, with leading female player Iga Swiatek accepting a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for a banned substance when she was world number one.

News of Sinner's positive tests was announced in August, shortly before the US Open - which he would go on to win.

The ITIA said at the time that the panel found Sinner bore "no fault or negligence" for testing positive for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol - a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass.

It accepted he had been inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist, who was treating a cut on his hand with an over-the-counter spray, which was later found to contain the banned substance.

But Wada lodged an appeal with Cas last September, stating at the time that the finding of "no fault or negligence" was not correct under the applicable rules, with a hearing scheduled for 16-17 April.

Wada has now officially withdrawn its Cas appeal and, having accepted the ban, Sinner will not be able to train until 13 April.

The next tournament he can play is in the clay-court Italian Open, which begins on 7 May.

He will miss prestigious hard-court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami - where he is the defending champion - as well as many of the clay tournaments before the French Open.

The ITIA says Wada's outcome supports its initial findings.

Will he lose his number one ranking?

Sinner currently has 11,830 points in the ATP rankings, a lead of more than 3,000 over Germany's world number two Alexander Zverev (8,135), with Spain's Carlos Alcaraz third (7,510).

The Italian's ban means he will not be able to defend points gained at tournaments last year and will lose ranking points.

For example, he will miss out on defending his title at the Miami Open which is held from 19-30 March and is worth 1,000 points.

Indian Wells, the Monte Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open are the other 1,000-point tournaments he will miss. The rest of the tournaments are worth either 250 or 500 points.

Losing his top ranking would also rely on his rivals winning multiple tournaments.

What have other players and pundits said?

Former British number one Tim Henman says the ban is "too convenient" and believes it will leave tennis fans with a "pretty sour taste", while Australia's former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios called it a "sad day for tennis".

"Obviously having just won the Australian Open, to miss three months of the Tour and therefore to be eligible to play at Roland Garros, the timing couldn't have been any better for Sinner, but I still think it leaves a pretty sour taste for the sport," Henman told Sky Sports.

"When you're dealing with drugs in sport it very much has to be black and white, it's binary, it's positive or negative, you're banned or you're not banned.

"When you start reading words like settlement or agreement, it feels like there's been a negotiation and I don't think that will sit well with the player cohort and the fans of the sport."

In a post on X, Kyrgios wrote: "So Wada come out and say it would be a 1-2 year ban. Obviously Sinner's team have done everything in their power to just go ahead and take a three month ban, no titles lost, no prize money lost. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist."

Sinner's lawyer Jamie Singer said on Saturday: "Wada has confirmed the facts determined by the Independent Tribunal. It is clear that Jannik had no intent, no knowledge, and gained no competitive advantage. Regrettably, errors made by members of his team led to this situation."

Accusations that Sinner has received preferential treatment, because of his status, were disputed by the ITIA.

Karen Moorhouse, chief executive of the ITIA, said: "The way we manage cases does not change, irrespective of the profile of the player involved."

World number four Novak Djokovic said in October that Sinner's doping case was "not helping tennis at all", while Australia's Kyrgios previously said: "Two world number ones both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It's a horrible look."

British player Tara Moore, who was provisionally banned for two years while challenging a doping charge of which she was eventually cleared, suggested top players were "treated differently".

But two-time major finalist Casper Ruud concluded there was "no discrimination" in favour of Sinner if "you have read the documents".

What has Sinner said about the case?

Sinner has always maintained he had done nothing wrong but said it created a "difficult" build-up to his US Open victory last September.

After the win in Melbourne, Sinner said he has always maintained that he has a "clear mind".

But he has accepted responsibility for the actions of his team and in the lawyers' statement on Saturday, it said he was "acknowledging his partial responsibility for the errors made by his team".

The ITIA's investigation found that Sinner - who said in September he was "surprised" and "disappointed" that Wada had appealed - had been inadvertently contaminated with the anabolic steroid by his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi.

Naldi was treating a cut on his hand using an over-the-counter spray, which had been provided by Sinner's fitness trainer Umberto Ferrara.

Three days after the doping case emerged last August, Sinner parted ways with Naldi and Ferrara.

Sinner was allowed to continue playing after testing positive because his legal team successfully appealed against the provisional suspensions that were automatically imposed after each of his failed tests.

After his first positive test, the ban was lifted after one day, and after the second test it was lifted after three days. Those four days count towards the three-month ban he has now accepted.