Andy Roddick repeated that he believes that Jannik Sinner didn’t intentionally or knowingly take a banned substance and that his physio is to blame for what happened but the American also slammed the timeline of the doping ban announcement as “borderline laughable.”
On Saturday, the WADA issued a major statement out of the blue, revealing that the CAS court date with the Italian was off after they settled on a three-month doping suspension.
The ban actually started before it was announced – on February 9th – and it will officially end on May 4th.
One of the first things that many instantly noticed was that Sinner would be able to play the Rome Masters on May 7th and he will also be allowed to take part at the French Open later that month.
So when the world No. 1 returns to action, that will be his first tournament since defending his Australian Open title and becoming a three-time Grand Slam champion.
Addressing the three-month ban on his podcast, Roddick said he believed Sinner and his explanation and that he wasn’t questioning the 23-year-old’s integrity or anything like that – but the timeline of the announcement left him a bit stunned.
Roddick: It may be good fortune for Sinner, but the timeline is borderline laughable
“It’s just, you can literally handpick a date, I am going to start 10 days after the Australian Open and I am going to end it, not even right before the French Open, right before I make my return to Rome, the Masters 1000 there,” the 2003 US Open winner said on the Served with Andy Roddick.
“You could not have handpicked a better sweet spot for Jannik to take this deal which is, either you know strange or the best coincidence that has ever happened to Jannik team…
After making it clear that he wasn’t accusing Sinner of anything, the American former world No. 1 also remarked that the Italian might have acted in good faith throughout the entire process so that helped him get a more favorable deal.
“Now, this whole thing with, you play the first major [Australian Open], you win it and then you take a little, you know siesta, you know and then you continue on with a week you know a warmup tournament in Rome, and then you miss no majors,” the American added.
“Now I don’t know how this and may be it’s just you know good fortune for the Sinner team, but the timeline is borderline laughable.”
Before the settlement was made, the WADA was seeking to get Sinner banned for one-two years.
Had that they gone to the CAS in April and the Italian received a suspension – even a three-month one – he would miss the French Open and Wimbledon.
Tennis World USA