Britain’s Liam Broady believes Jannik Sinner’s three-month ban for doping has been timed to impact the world number one’s career “as little as possible”.
The Italian accepted an immediate three-month ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) on Saturday (15) after reaching a settlement over his two positive drug tests last year.
The 23-year-old, who won the Australian Open in January, is suspended from February 9 until May 4, so will be eligible to play at the French Open – the next Grand Slam of the year – which begins on May 19.
“I do think a lot has been put into when the ban would take place, to impact Jannik’s career as little as possible,” Broady told BBC Sport.
“The ban ends the day before the Rome Masters, which is the biggest tournament in his home country and the perfect preparation for him to then go and play the French Open.
“I don’t think he loses any [ranking] points or his number one spot either, so it’s an interesting ban.
“I was speaking to some people earlier and they said it’s kind of like a Premier League footballer being banned over the summer. It’s a difficult one.”
Sinner was 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) following the 2024 decision by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) not to suspend Sinner.
However, it reached a deal after accepting the player was inadvertently contaminated by a banned substance and “did not intend to cheat”.
World number 766 Broady said he was a “little bit upset at the verdict”, adding that “it doesn’t seem like there’s much being lost from this ban”.
“It does appear to be favouritism towards the better players on the tour,” Broady added.
“I wouldn’t say that he’s done it on purpose, but if that had happened to another player, would we be treated the same way? Would we be afforded the same sort of dignity?”
(BBC Sports)
