CNN
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Tennis star Janik Thinner has revealed that he has considered moving away from the sport on the recent doping suspension.
The world’s No. 1 approaches the end of the three-month ban last March, when it tested twice for two positive cases of Anabolic Steroid, the banned substance Clostebol.
The three-time Grand Slam champion was previously spared from the ban when the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) decided it was not due to positive tests and accepted that the contamination was caused by the application of commercial sprays.
However, the World Anti-Doping Organization (WADA) later filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) and accepted the suspension from February 9th to May 4th.
In an interview with Italian state broadcaster Rai, the sinner was asked if he was thinking of leaving tennis at any time during the ordeal.
“I remember that before Australians opened this year, it wasn’t a very happy time,” said the 23-year-old. “In the locker room we were eating, I wasn’t really comfortable. The players looked at me differently. I told myself, I didn’t want (no prohibited).
“I’ve had a hard time accepting the last three months. I knew there was nothing wrong, so why should I pay this price? But we discussed it with our lawyers and discussed what happened in the worst case scenario, so we decided to accept it.”
The saga around the sinners has highlighted tennis’s current anti-doping protocols, raising concerns about the possibility of top stars’ priority treatment.
For example, the sinner will not miss an event in the Grand Slam during his ban. He also won the US
Open and Australians open while waiting for his suspension verdict.
Recently, Serena Williams said that if the same thing happened to her, she was banned for “twenty years” and “the grand slam was taken away.” Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic said the entire case was “not a good image for our sport.”
But as he prepares to return to action, the Italian says he focuses on preparation before he returns to competitive action.
“I don’t want to answer. Everyone is free to say what they want, everyone can judge, but that’s fine,” Sinner said. “It’s important to me to know how it happened, but more than anything, it was very difficult about what I went through.
“It wasn’t easy, so no one really wants to pass as such an innocent thing, but we’re in a world where everyone can say what they want, so it’s fine.”
