On Sunday night, most eyes in the tennis world were on Madrid as Jack Draper and Casper Ruud faced off for the Masters 1000 trophy. But 4 May was also remarkable for being the final day of world No 1 Jannik Sinner’s suspension. As of Sunday, he was officially allowed to play tennis again, over a year after two positive tests for clostebol set into motion one of the sport’s most unedifying sagas of recent times.
An independent panel found him to bear “no fault or negligence” for the results, accepting his explanation of contamination, and overturned the standard provisional ban applied in such cases. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the explanation but fought for a harsher punishment of between one and two years, before reaching a three-month settlement with the Italian shortly before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) was due to hear the case.
