Krygios, Wawrinka slam Sinner's 3-month ban: Tennis is not a clean sport anymore

Tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and Stanislas Wawrinka slammed the 3-month ban imposed on World No.1 Jannik Sinner. Sinner was handed the ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the two parties reached a settlement over a long-pending case.

In 2024, WADA had filed a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against Sinner after the player had escaped a ban despite testing positive for banned substances. An independent tennis tribunal had argued that Sinner had been unknowingly drugged after his masseuse applied a cream on his body that contained an anabolic agent called clostebol.

On Saturday, February 15, WADA released a lengthy statement revealing that Sinner had accepted his 3-month ban. WADA also stated that the tenure of the ban was fair as it accepted Sinner's explanation for the cause of the violation.

Tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and Stan Wawrinka were left fuming at the decision. Wawrinka took to X and wrote that tennis was no longer a clean sport.

The strong reactions from the tennis players do not come as a surprise. For close to two years now, players have been quite vocal about the double standards in dishing out punishments. While Sinner and Iga Swiatek, two of the most recognised names in the current crop of tennis players, have been handed minute bans, others like Simona Halep have been barred from tennis for years by the association.

Back in November 2024, Simona Halep had slammed the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) over their double standards in handing out doping bans. The former World No.1 had reacted in horror after the ITIA handed a one-month ban to Iga Swiatek after she tested positive for a banned substance.

“I’m sitting and trying to understand, but it’s really impossible for me to understand something like this. I stand and ask myself, why is there such a big difference in treatment and judgment? I can’t find, and I don’t think there can be, a logical answer. It can only be bad will from ITIA, the organization that has done absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence,” Simona Halep wrote on Instagram.

“I really wanted to destroy the last years of my career, I wanted something that I could never have imagined would be wanted. I always believed in good, I believed in fairness, I believed in goodness. It was painful, is painful, and maybe the injustice that was done to me will always be painful. How is it possible that in identical cases happening around the same time, ITIA could have completely different approaches to my detriment? How could I accept that the WTA and the Players' Council did not want to return the ranking that I deserved?!” Halep said.

“I lost two years of my career, I lost many nights when I couldn’t sleep, thoughts, anxiety, questions without answers... but I won justice. It turned out that it was a contamination and that the biological passport was a pure invention. And I won something else, my soul remained clean!! I feel disappointed, I feel mad, I feel frustrated, but I do not feel evil even now. I am grateful for the support and unconditional love of those who have been by my side every day. THANK YOU! In all the naughtiness, I also received love because those who offered me love in those moments really knew me! Perhaps this is the biggest victory! As we know well that every morning the sun rises for everyone, but it’s good to rise finding yourself with a flawless soul! And that’s how I am, packed and proud of what I am!” Halep had said.