No. 1 Jannik Sinner avoids ban after testing positive for illegal substance | 2024 US Open

breaking news concerning the men's number one yanic sinner tested positive twice for a banned anabolic steroid at Indian wells in March however no suspension International tennis Integrity agency and independent tribunal convened by Sports resolution has ruled no fault or negligence on behalf of the player minuscule traces it would not impact his performance and he is allowed to continue playing as he has throughout this process straight to world number one and he will be arriving today speaking with the Press at this point on Friday and the number one seed here at the US Open but yanic Center cleared by the Ia after testing twice in March for an anabolic steroid in his system I will now put this challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me I'll continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the I's anti-doping program and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their compliance the ATP said the following we're encouraged that no falder negligence has been found on yanic Sinner's part we'd also like to acknowledge the robustness of the investigation process an independent evaluation of the facts under the tadp which has allowed him to continue competing this has been a challenging matter for yanuk and his team under scores the need for players and entourages to take utmost care in use of products or treatments in Integrity is Paramount in our sport some of the players quick to react Nick Kiros who will be joining our ESPN team ridiculous whether it was accidental or planned you get tested twice a ban steroid substance you should be gone 2 years your performance was enhanced massage cream which to correct Nick is wrong yanic never said that was the case the massage cream but the sentiment is clear same for Dennis shapovalov who concluded different rules for different players I welcome you back to a practice court studio right here with Chrissy Evert joining us now I'm Patrick macro Renee stubs I'm Chris mckendry to recap what happened at Indian Wells yanic cers Physio giakomo naldi and the trainer Ambat Ferrera this is where the problem happened according to team CER giano the physio cut his finger Ferrera the trainer treated it with an antiseptic spray it's an over-the-counter spray available in Italy but it did contain an an IC steroid clol that's on the band list yanic then was worked on by the physio traces of this anabolic steroid were found in his system immediately Yanik team went to sports resolution the team cooperated everyone gave extensive interviews and on two occasions both tribunals said it's understandable he can continue to play and just last Wednesday was finally cleared no negligence no response responsibility in the matter Chrissy what's your reaction to this well when I just first of all I've been thrown into this Saga I just arrived on the set and I listening to this and I'm like whoa Yanni CER is like the last person you think but we said that about Simona halab too and Maria sherap POA um my question is it they found it twice I'm just asking you that question tested they always test twice they tested twice um what's my I you know I I don't think he should be banned for two years I think that it's legitimate um with what happened I think it's a freak thing what what happened you know spraying your a cut on your finger and then the physio is going to massage and he worked on him for five days I guess during um I talked to his um manager Lawrence frankopan he said he he worked on him five days and and he said you know there's he he said um yanique had blister and he had he had like welts on his body a little bit he had he had areas where that could really seep in and really affect his body and and get into his bloodstream and then when he's tested it's going to come out positive but you know I'm just we never had these problems when we were playing did we Patrick uh definely we didn't have testing back when you were okay well that's really far back thank you well the the testing just so everybody's aware is extremely stringent in professional T has been for a long time you know according to the experts that analyzed this it was such a minute amount of this drug in his system that it wouldn't even have affected his performance okay now you're getting players not just a two we show in curios and shaav allaf making comments which is everybody's right to do you're seeing a lot of other players saying there's two different sets of rules for the Sinners of the world and for the the Journeymen type players but all we can do and you whether that's true or not is Up For Debate I think to a certain extent but all we can do is look at it look at the facts as we see them and as we're learning about them and and and and say what we think right but I think it's wrong for some of the players to just immediately you know have an initial reaction and attack the guy you know learn about what happened try to figure it out and then try to assess you know your own opinion and obviously have one that's maybe a little bit nuanced yeah coulden I've tried over the last hour since we've been sitting here reading through all of the everything and the thing that I got from what I've read is that the experts and that's what we rely on as athletes as people as team members you want the the experts to be able to look at what's plausible and clearly what they're saying the experts is the ex explanation of what happened is very highly plausible is what happened they said it's very likely that what and what they're saying is very true true because of the minuscule amount that was in his system would make sense to what they said whe whether it was the spray on that on the cut and he would have been using that for days to to heal the cut on his hand especially when you're a Physio and you're working on your your players you don't be wearing black Band-Aids and all that sort of stuff that just is not going to happen unless you wear gloves that's probably where he went wrong he probably should have had gloves on but having said that it's plausible and it makes sense and that's what the experts are saying so we have to rely on those experts to do the right thing by the players by their team and they have concluded after all this time that that's a plausible and the other the other thing that came out in in that material too was that the these experts they don't know who the player is yes that's true so they they they get this and it's it's it's Anonymous who the player is so they're just going through it as if it could be anybody so that's why to me some of the players saying that there's two levels of you know rules for different players I think is a little jumping the gun here not a little actually a lotum ing the gun well I think I think one more thought I think and you guys were all talking about it before about the the importance of the team the physio whoever's in charge of the you know U monitoring the drugs because even though that was offthe counter it did have clust ball in it and clust ball is a baned substance so you know I think it it has a lot to do with the people who are assigned um to that area of a players Health that was the question Chrissy I had I did speak with our colleague Darren kahill who is Team Center CEO head coach along with other coaches and and uh team that janik's been very loyal to from the time he was a younger player what was it doing in his bag who didn't read a label how does this happen and these are the questions now the team will work through another thing that um um that I saw as being reported and again take this with a a certain grain of salt because we're all trying to learn this was at clal that over half of the positive tests for this particular substance are from Italy yes okay because apparently in some of their over-the-counter medicines it's legal that's part of it so why saying yeah and this this is other complication of our sport of tennis which it's so International there you know now teams everybody comes from different places obviously they travel all over the place and there are different rules in different places of substances that are legal that are not legal and that have to be prescription or not yeah I mean you might go into you know a chemist in in Italy and just be like yeah it's over the counter I'm just going to buy this it's to heal my hands no big deal the mistake that was made was that if you are a member of a team of a professional athlete you better make sure even the stuff you're using is okay and that's the mistake and that's why I said maybe next time wear gloves Darren kah Hill is going to join us he's landing at JFK and coming directly here in just a couple of hours quick you mentioned a couple of big names Chrissy we haven't seen them recover Sharapova and halop how does CER carry this on through his career what impact does this have well first of all well they were Sim they were out for over two years so that that was a bit more serious I think this is you know whether it's with because of the spray or because you know I I it's been okayed it's it's done you know it's a decision's been made already I he'll be fine I I think he'll be fine I don't think anything's G to affect him two different stories well I think it's been affecting him there's no question in my mind uh we all know him we're all around him whether it be at various different tournaments I've reported on him I don't claim to know him and well but when you see somebody I felt um I felt that there was a heaviness about him over the last few months and I couldn't really understand why there was reports with different things whether it be the girlfriend blah blah blah honestly I felt that he had a heaviness about him over the last few months um his reactions on the court he hasn't been playing that well and now we know why this was right without question Weighing on him how difficult must that have been and if he's been cleared now he's going to have to live with this sadly because look at the tweets that are already coming out by his fellow athletes his fellow players he has to walk into the locker room and deal with that I think that this is going to affect him more than we realized because he's quite a sensitive young man so well look the headline is it was ruled no fault yeah no negligence that is the headline doesn't mean it doesn't leave us with a lot to digest and a lot of questions but he's got to be relieved that that's the answer that could it could have been a lot worse and that's my point yes I mean I do think it affected him but now that he's gotten that answer you know it's it's um it has conviction in it and I think that knowing him I think he's just going to just going to play this tournament and yes it will be on his mind a little bit but you know what how many times do you think he's going to get asked every single press I mean I think it depends on the person how they handle it and I think he's pretty cool customer well he did just went Cincinnati last night so so far he's handled it yeah that was before it came out in the press all right but he was cleared as of last Wednesday so there's already a lightness to uh apparently at least what he knows he has to deal with personally again Darren K will join us just once he gets into town yanx are expected to meet with press come Friday we'll see if he moves up his timeline [Music]