By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, August 24, 2024
Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty

NEW YORK—Taylor Fritz is on the opposite half of the US Open draw headed by Jannik Sinner.

The American No. 1 says he hopes Sinner's doping case spotlights the need for consistency in tennis' anti-doping process.

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World No. 1 Sinner twice tested positive for trace amounts of the banned steroid clostebol in March 2024.

Sinner successfully appealed provisional suspensions and was permitted to continue playing. An independent tribunal ruled the Italian superstar at "no fault" for failing the doping tests so he was not suspended.



Fritz said he believes in the investigation process and result and said the truth of how the Italian was contaminated is really only known by Sinner and his team.

"Everyone is going to have their own their own opinion, but it's pretty irrelevant at the end of the day, because the truth of the matter is always going to be between him and his team," Fritz told the media in New York during his pre-tournament presser on Friday. "You know, I trust that whoever, like, the whole investigative process was done properly."

World No. 12 Fritz said a primary concern is a level playing field for all players when it comes to suspensions while their cases are being investigated and adjudicated. Fritz also questioned the fairness at play when some players have been suspended for missing doping tests whereas Sinner actually failed two doping tests and was not suspended.

"I think the only thing I will say is I think there's a lot of people that get suspended and can't play for a while because they either missed their tests, like the random testing, which, by the way, whatever someone might tell you,it's not that hard to miss a test or two," Fritz said. "So people get banned off missing three of those. It's kind of hard to miss a third one. You should probably lock it down once you get two strikes. But there's crazy situations where that happens.

"I think a lot of people get banned for unfortunate reasons. I guess in this ruling they found that it's different and there's no ban, and I trust that he wasn't, you know, at fault or purposely doing anything.

"I just think that it should be consistent across the board with bans and who gets banned, who doesn't get banned, who gets suspended, who doesn't get suspended."

Australian Open champion Sinner and his team first learned he tested positive for the banned steroid Clostebol shortly after he won the Miami Open championship last March. Coach Darren Cahill traced the positive test to Sinner's physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who the team claims inadvertently contaminated Sinner with a medication he used to treat a cut on his finger.

The medication, available over the county in Italy and other European countries, was given to Naldi by Sinner's trainer, Umberto Ferrara.



While some players have publicly supported Sinner, others have pointed to a double standard that he was able to continue competing while some other players, who also claimed inadvertent contamination, were not. Sinner said the fact authorities accepted his explanation almost “straightaway” was why his provisional suspension was so brief.

“I know sometimes the frustration of other players obviously,” Sinner said. “But maybe because they got suspended is they didn't know exactly where it comes from, also what substance, but the main reason is where it comes from and how it entered in his own system. We knew it straightaway, and we were aware of what happened.

"We went straightaway, and I was suspended for two, three days. I couldn't practice and everything. But they accepted it very, very fast, and that's why.”