Featured Image Credit: CNN/Getty
Topics: Tennis, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz
Chris Byfield
Tennis great Rafael Nadal expressed his feelings on Jannik Sinner’s doping ban in a throwback interview.
World No.1 Sinner is set to play rival Carlos Alcaraz for the fourth time this season when the go toe-to-toe in the Cincinnati Open final.
Alcaraz has won two of their three finals this year - in Rome and Roland Garros, while Sinner was the victor when the pair met in the Wimbledon final.
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Sinner’s semi-final victory over Terence Atmane was his 200th tour-level win on hard courts, while it extended his winning streak on the surface to 26 matches ahead of next month's US Open.
Indeed, the Italian’s imperious form has been unfettered by the controversy he faced earlier in the year, when he was given a three-month ban for testing positive to banned substance Clostebol in March 2024.
The punishment came following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the International Tennis Integrity Agency had initially cleared Sinner of wrongdoing.
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Despite Sinner having always maintained his innocence, insisting the substance unintentionally entered his system during massage treatment, he received criticism from the likes of Nick Kyrgios and Serena Williams, who were questioned the leniency shown to the four-time Grand Slam winner.
Indeed, his ban fell between the first two Grand Slam events of the season.
However, 22-Grand Slam winner Nadal threw his support behind Sinner when asked about the situation in April.
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"First of all, I 100% believe that Jannik Sinner did not want to do something that is not allowed, at all, so I 100% believe in Jannik Sinner," Nadal told CNN.
"Second, talking about the process, for me, I believe in justice. For some reason we have the justice there that they have to make decisions. They have all the information that probably not one of us has and they make the decisions.
"From my point of view, I don't believe that Jannik Sinner, because he is No. 1 in the world, received different treatment from another person. From my perspective and from my understanding, that is what I can say."