Tennis legend Novak Djokovic said a “cloud will follow’’ Jannik Sinner because the 24-year-old Italian tennis star tested positive for steroids in 2024.
Djokovic, during an appearance on ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ said over time the cloud will fade.
“But I don’t think it will disappear,’’ added Djokovic, 38.
Sinner, a winner of four Grand Slams, was ranked No. 1 in the world when he tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March 2024. Djokovic also said the way the case was handled raised “so many red flags.’’
The International Tennis Integrity Agency did not suspend Sinner after saying it determined the banned substance entered his system unintentionally during a massage with his fitness trainer. But Sinner accepted a three-month ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency that did not result in him missing a Grand Slam and spared him from more serious action.
“The lack of transparency, the inconsistency, the convenience of the ban coming between the Slams so he doesn’t miss out the other,’’ Djokovic. “It was very, very odd. Very, very odd. And so, I really don’t like how the case was being handled.
“And you could hear so many other players, both male and female, who had some similar situations coming out in the media and complaining that it was (preferential treatment).’’
However, Djokovic suggested he wants to believe Sinner, who said trace amounts of clostebol, a steroid, entered his system. Sinner said it occurred because the fitness trainer who gave him a massage used the banned substance after the fitness trainer cut his finger.
‘Those are the rules’
Of Sinner, Djokovic said, ‘I think he didn’t do it on purpose, but of course he’s responsible because those are the rules. You are responsible when something like this happens. And so, when you see someone for something very similar or same being banned for years and then he’s banned for provisional whatever, three months or whatever it was, it’s not right.’’
Djokovic said one of the reasons he believed Sinner is because he played with him when Sinner was 13 or 14 and they had the same coach, Riccardo Piatti, at a tennis academy in Italy.
“And I was practicing with Sinner a lot of the times when he was a junior,’’ Djokovic said. “And I liked him actually a lot because he was always skinny as I was and tall and grew up skiing, grew up on the mountains. So very similar story to mine. And he always came across very genuine, very nice, very quiet…
“And I do have (a) sense of empathy and compassion for him because, and I think he has handled the storm in the media that keeps on coming back every once in a while. He’s handling that very well and very maturely and very steadily.’’
Djokovic faced a similar scrutiny when he refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. That got him deported from Australia in 2022 and he missed that year’s Australian Open.
“I mean, look, that cloud will follow (Sinner) as the cloud of COVID will follow me for the rest of his or my career in this case,’’ Djokovic said.