It is a doping affair that risks seriously tarnishing the image of world tennis. This sport seems to have finally found the heirs of champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, 37 years old and soon to retire from the courts, with the new generation embodied by Jannik Sinner, 23 years old, and Carlos Alcaraz, 21 years old. But Sinner, world number one since June due to his victory at the Australian Open and his semi-final at Roland-Garros, tested positive twice for a banned anabolic, clostebol, then cleared, he revealed this week.
Was it accidental or intentional? The Italian tennis player claims that it was his physiotherapist who applied a massage cream containing clostebol to a cut and that caused him to fail two urine tests during the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells last March. His defense was deemed credible by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which decided after an investigation that Jannick Sinner should not be suspended.
Although the Italian lost his points (400) and his prize money (320,000 euros) from the Indian Wells tournament, his non-suspension – while a suspension is provided for by the World Anti-Doping Code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to prove his good faith – is causing great irritation in the sporting world.
“Whether it’s accidental or intentional, if you test positive for an anabolic steroid twice, you should be suspended for two years. Your performance has been enhanced. Massage cream… Yes, that’s it,” Australian Nick Kyrgios lambasted on X. “Maybe we should stop taking us for idiots, no?” Frenchman Lucas Pouille said on the social network.
To understand the ins and outs of this affair, we interviewed one of the world’s leading doping specialists: Jean-Claude Alvarez, professor of toxicology at Garches hospital. “The Sinner case is a real problem for fairness in sport,” believes the man, who notably helped to clear former world number one tennis player Simona Halep of Romania and French fencer Ysaora Thibus through scientific evidence.
The Point: What is Clostebol and what are its effects on the body?
Jean-Claude Alvarez: This is an anabolic steroid. Anabolic steroids are the most used products in doping, because they develop muscles and help fight fatigue. It is therefore practical to take them for an athlete and especially a tennis player.
Is the defence of Jannik Sinner, who says he was unknowingly contaminated by a cream applied by his physiotherapist, credible?
Contamination is entirely possible. I just hope that it has been demonstrated and that it will be demonstrated. The first test showed 121 picograms per milliliter, reduced to about 70 to 80 picograms (a picogram is a trillionth of a gram, editor’s note). This is a very low level compatible with contamination through the skin, especially since there have already been about forty cases of contamination with this cream in Italy. I just hope that a hair analysis was done.
Because if urine allows us to know at a moment, all the products taken accumulate in the hair. Thus, if an athlete regularly takes clostebol, he will have a lot of it in his hair. If he has been contaminated punctually, there will be very low or non-existent concentrations in the hair. We must hope that doctors have carried out a hair analysis and reproduced the experiment which would allow us to scientifically demonstrate that the contamination is plausible. In this case, Sinner’s physiotherapist must give him some cream and we must take urine samples from the player to see if we find the same concentration as that observed during his two tests in March.
You defended Simona Halep suspended for months after positive doping test for roxadustat. Are you shocked by the difference in treatment?
When you have a positive test, the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are such that the athlete is immediately suspended. I note that Simona Halep was immediately suspended. The procedure lasted 18 months in total. Simona was finally suspended for 9 months and the case was published, unlike that of Jannik Sinner. In the case of the Italian, there was no publication and the provisional suspension was lifted. Why this difference in treatment? There is no explanation.
With Simona Halep, we asked for suspension five or six times, it was always refused. She was the one who warned me about the Sinner case. She is furious and cannot understand this difference in treatment. She thinks it is because she is a woman, she is Romanian and has no power. Simona Halep is no longer classified today, and she is refused wild cards [des accès qui permettent à un joueur non qualifié de participer à un tournoi, NDLR] because she is supposedly a former doper on the circuit.
How should Jannik Sinner have been treated?
He should have been suspended and not played for five months. He should no longer be world number one, but 20th or 30th in the world. For five months, he should not have played and won tournaments with a current scandal. I also hope that WADA will appeal. I really don’t understand their rules anymore. There is also the case of the 23 Chinese swimmers not suspended before the 2024 Paris Olympics. Athletes must rebel against this unfair system. It is imperative that all athletes are treated equally.
What needs to be changed?
Anti-doping rules say that the athlete is responsible for everything that goes into his body. But you can’t be responsible for everything that goes into your body. If I do a urine test, you may be contaminated, because 30% of the supplements you take can be contaminated. Urine detection devices go very low. 120 picograms is nothing, because we’re talking about 12 zeros after the decimal point.
I had the case of a judoka who had 14 picograms of a product in his urine. It’s ridiculous. So we should set thresholds for all molecules. Most of the products come from China and can be contaminated. And the World Anti-Doping Agency must allow hair analysis. Today, it doesn’t know how to do it. However, if it doesn’t replace urine or blood analysis, it is an essential contribution in doping cases.
