World number one Jannik Sinner has accepted an immediate three-month ban from tennis after reaching a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) over his two positive drugs test last year.
The 23-year-old Italian, who last month won the Australian Open, is suspended from 9 February until 4 May.
He will be eligible to play in the year’s next Grand Slam event, the French Open, which starts on 19 May.
In a statement on Saturday, Wada, which had appealed against the decision to clear Sinner to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), says it accepts his explanation that he was inadvertently contaminated with the banned substance clostebol by his physiotherapist.
The body accepts the three-time Grand Slam champion “did not intend to cheat”, that the drug “did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit” and this happened “without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage”.
It added: “However, under the code and by virtue of Cas precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence. Based on the unique set of facts of this case, a three-month suspension is deemed to be an appropriate outcome.”
In a statement released by his lawyers, Sinner said: “This case had been hanging over me for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year.
“I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise Wada’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On that basis I have accepted Wada’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three-month sanction.”
Tennis has seen some high profile doping cases over the past six months, with leading female player Iga Swiatek accepting a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for a banned substance when she was world number one.
Sinner had previously been cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent panel after testing positive for the banned steroid clostebol in March 2024.
It had been accepted that he had been inadvertently contaminated by his physiotherapist, who was treating a cut on his hand with an over-the-counter spray, which was later found to contain the banned substance.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency said in August that the panel found Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” for testing positive for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol – a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass.
But Wada lodged an appeal with Cas last September stating at the time the finding of “no fault or negligence” was not correct under the applicable rules and it sought a ban of between one and two years, with a hearing scheduled for 16-17 April.
This has led to Sinner accepting the ban and the next tournament he can play in is the Italian Open, which begins on 7 May.
He will miss prestigious hard court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami in the US, plus many of the clay tournaments that build-up to the French Open.
Wada says Sinner can return to “official training activity” from 13 April.
