Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, thinks Jannik Sinner will face more scrutiny than other players after testing positive for a banned substance.
The tennis world is still shocked by the news of Sinner’s positive tests for clostebol at the Indian Wells Open, where he reached the semifinals.
Though Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing and avoided suspension, he lost his ranking points and prize money from Indian Wells, reducing his lead as world No. 1.
After a five-month investigation, tennis authorities accepted that the banned substance entered Sinner’s system through his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi’s over-the-counter spray containing clostebol.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| it Jannik Sinner | 23 | 15,405 | 33 - 3 |
Reactions and Opinions:
Some players and fans are upset because the investigation was private, allowing Sinner to compete for five months without proven innocence. Denis Shapovalov and Nick Kyrgios were among those angered by this case. Shapovalov expressed sympathy for other accused players whose cases went public, while Kyrgios argued that Sinner should be banned for two years.
However, others showed support for Sinner. Mark Petchey defended how the case was handled and believed that Sinner’s response to the positive test followed all rules properly.
Stubbs also believes there was no favoritism in how authorities treated Sinner. She cited investigations of Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova as examples showing no bias towards big names in tennis.
“It goes through a very tight investigation,” she said. “It’s not like they say ‘Well, we like him; let him keep playing.’ That’s not how it works.”
Fans might think it’s unfair how different players get treated in doping cases.
Stubbs trusts that the investigation into Sinner was thorough and correct. She sees no reason to believe anything unfair happened during this process or that it favored him over others.
“But at the same time,” she added, “he would have been under full investigation for this and they have cleared him… So we have to believe that the investigation was done thoroughly.”
Despite Stubbs’ trust in both Sinner and the process clearing him, she thinks this incident will haunt his career forever: “He [Jannik Sinner] will be scrutinized now for the rest of his career sadly because of what happened.”
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