 "Rafael Nadal, Rafael, Nadal")
Paris: Rafael Nadal of Spain during the first-round singles match over Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, at the Summer Olympics 2024, in Paris, France, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Rafael Nadal told a Spanish television show that he doesn’t think Jannik Sinner intended to use a banned substance and that the current No 1-ranked man didn’t receive preferential treatment when he was cleared of doping after testing positive twice in March for trace amounts of an anabolic steroid.
“I trust that he wasn’t punished because those who judged this case determined quite clearly that there was nothing to punish. … I don’t believe the sentence has anything to do with him being No 1 in the world,” 22-time major champion Nadal said in an interview with “El Hormiguero” on Monday.
Sinner played Tommy Paul in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday night.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency said on August 20 that it was determined the banned performance-enhancer entered Sinner’s system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist, and that is why the player was not suspended.
Asked about the matter in New York before the US Open began, Novak Djokovic said he gets why some tennis players question whether there’s a double-standard in the sport.
Nadal, who sat out the US Open, said: “I believe in someone’s good faith. I know Sinner; I don’t believe that Sinner wanted to dope.”
“In the end, justice is justice, and I believe in justice,” Nadal said.
“I believe in the bodies that have to make decisions and that they do it based on what they believe is right.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Sep 03 2024 | 12:12 PM IS