Coach Toni Nadal believes that the ban on world number one Jannik Sinner is reasonable, but criticizes many stars for joining together to condemn the 23-year-old talent.
In an interview with El Pais magazine this week, coach Toni Nadal expressed his support for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in pursuing Sinner’s positive drug test, which forced the player to take a three-month break. He also praised Sinner for taking responsibility for the consequences his team caused. However, the 64-year-old coach was not satisfied with the way many tennis stars responded to the incident.
“For me, first of all, Sinner did not want to commit a crime and did not benefit from that one millionth of clostebol,” coach Toni said. “Everything is against him in this case. So I was surprised that many other players spoke out against him. Even among them are many high-level players, and some of them are not very clean.”
Sinner at a press conference after the Australian Open last month, in Melbourne. Photo: FP
Coach Toni Nadal did not name the players who opposed Sinner, but Novak Djokovic , Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, Juan Martin del Potro and several others have previously criticized WADA’s punishment. Kyrgios said it was a “set-up” and a “joke” for tennis. Wawrinka said he no longer believed in tennis, while Djokovic called for a major overhaul of tennis organizations after they were biased against top players like Sinner.
“Sinner has been through a lot of hearings, has been suspended, and has been cleared,” added coach Toni. “Along with that process, he has been playing and working hard for a year. As far as I know, his team reached an agreement with WADA legally. So why talk about it? If you think he deserves a one-year suspension, for many others, he has been cleared since August 2024 and should have entered this season with peace of mind.”
Before coach Toni, another legend, coach Boris Becker, also supported Sinner, saying that the story should stop here. “We are talking about a very small dose of doping with six zeros after the decimal point. It did not help Sinner, but instead brought disaster to him,” Becker said. This was also the thinking of some other big names such as Feliciano Lopez and Rafael Nadal in interviews they attended last year.
With a three-month ban from WADA, Sinner will not miss any of the Grand Slams this year. He will miss a number of ATP 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid, but will be able to play the Rome Masters on home soil, the final major event to prepare for Roland Garros. Sinner has won three of the last five Grand Slams, but has struggled on clay.
