By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, August 21, 2024
"Jannik didn't intend to cheat," world No. 1 Jannik Sinner's coach, Darren Cahill, told ESPN's Chris McKendry.
P hoto credit: Matthew Calvis
Amid a storm of controversy over a pair of positive doping tests, Jannik Sinner has downsized his team at the US Open.
Long-time coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi are the only two members of Sinner's team currently with the world No. 1 in New York City.
More: Jannik Sinner Tests Positive for Steroids
In an interview with his ESPN colleague Chris McKendry, ESPN analyst and coach Cahill defended Sinner after the ITIA's stunning announcement that the Italian superstar twice tested positive for a banned steroid last March.
.aspx)
Cahill, who has coached Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, Simona Halep and Sinner to the world No. 1 ranking, defended his charge for unknowingly becoming contaminated after receiving treatment from his physiotherapist. Cahill said Sinner is not a cheater and did not intentionally dope.
"Everybody has to know that Jannik had no part in this at all," Cahill told ESPN. "He didn’t elect to ingest anything. He didn’t take any tablets. He didn’t intend to cheat.
"Somehow he’s tested positive through this connection to this particular spray from [physiotherapist] Giacomo through to Jannik. We don’t know how. Working on the feet, a massage, whatever it may be. And he’s given two positive results from that."
Coach Cahill said Sinner and his team first learned he tested positive for the banned steroid Clostebol shortly after he won the Miami Open championship last March. Cahill traced the positive test to Sinner's physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, who the team claims inadvertenly 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, Cahill said in recounting the chain of events that led up to the two failed doping tests.
Sinner successfully appealed both provisional suspensions claiming inadvertent contamination and was permitted to play while his case was under investigation.
"Straightaway they worked it back to knowing that it must have come from this particularl spray that the physical trainer had on him," Cahill said. "So what happens from there is you go to sports resolution because they give a suspension straight away so to get that suspension lifted Jannik’s team had to go to sports resolution and have an emergency meeting.
"The story was told exactly how it happened. That Jannik played no part it in. That he’s incredibly professional, that he supports anti-doping, that he does everything around his team to make sure something like this would not happen. And they accepted how it happened, saw it was no fault from him.
"So they allowed him to continue to play and then the ITIA would do their due diligence and make sure it was all credible."
When news of Sinner's two positive doping tests broke yesterday, Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Chrissie Evert expressed surprise that in the aftermath of Maria Sharapova’s doping ban for using the banned substance Meldonium that some players and their teams haven’t protected themselves from contamination.
“I think tennis has done an accurate job. My only question is the steroid Clostebol, yes it was on the counter in Italy. You can buy it off the counter, so that’s just like buying aspirin off the counter,” Evert said in an ESPN Zoom call with the media to promote the network's US Open coverage. “Still these players have teams to really examine what is in these substances.
"And I would have thought especially since Maria Sharapova saga that teams would be more aware of what to look for in any substance that their players are taking.
“It’s off the counter yet it still has a steroid, which is banned. You can’t do that steroid and then it turns out to be a spray.”
Asked why a spray containing a banned steroid was even in his trainer's bag, Cahill said he had no answer.
"We are all really well read in Anti-Doping and WADA rules,” Cahill told ESPN. “And Umberto has been in the game for 15 years. He’s got degrees. He’s owned a pharmacy in Italy. He’s worked with many players here. He’s in charge of Jannik’s anti-doping, his diet, his physical training. Everything surrounding Jannik off the court.
"So I can’t answer that question. I don’t know why. I’m sure he had it for his personal reasons and probably shouldn’t have passed it off to Giacomo."
Consequently, neither the trainer nor the physiotherapist are currently with Sinner's team in New York for now.
"At the moment, it’s just Simone and I—the two tennis coaches—that are here and we’re supporting Jannik at the moment," Cahill said.
Sinner and his team first learned of his positive steroid test shortly after he captured the Miami Open in March. Cahill said Sinner has suffered physically and emotionally from the stress, but is also thankful he was not banned from the sport.
"Honestly, it’s been a tough situation. Everybody that goes through these situations really suffers," Cahill said. "You know from the outside I watched Simona go through her situation as well and there was nothing fair in that. In watching her suffer through that as well.
"So to be inside the fence on this one it was really difficult for me and to watch him suffer both mentally and physically...
"Yeah, he’s struggled. I think it’s wore him down physically and mentally. I think he’s gotten sick a couple of times. He got tonsillitis, which is the reason why he missed the Olympics. So we’re not looking for any sorrow because we’re quite thankful that there is no ban attached."
Defending the Cincinnati champion as a player who would "never, ever intentionally do anything [to violate the rules]," Cahill said Sinner has to work through this turbulent time and continue to improve.
"I just want to stress he’s a great kid, he’s incredibly professional," Cahill said. "He’s maybe the most professional young man that I’ve ever had the chance to work with. He would never, ever intentionally do anything. He’s in a situation which is incredible unfortunate.
"The truth came out. Exactly what happened: There is no fault, no negligence. Hopefully he can put this behind him and continue to play and continue to get better."
How will US Open fans respond to Sinner and how will he react to the controversy and questions that will surely surround him in New York remains to be seen.