The governing body of men’s tennis has confirmed there will be no adjustments made to the duration of Jannik Sinner’s time as world No.1 following his ban.
Sinner currently leads the ATP standings by more than 3000 points over his nearest rival Alexander Zverev. However, he has been handed a three-month suspension after reaching a case resolution with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over two failed drugs tests last year. Sinner, who twice tested positive for traces of Clostebol, was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent panel which accepted that was accidentally contaminated by his former physio who was using a spray on his hand that contained the substance. However, WADA filed an appeal last September arguing that the tennis star had a degree of fault as he employs his physio and is therefore partly responsible for ensuring he is following the right procedures.
An appeal hearing was set to take place at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in April before a settlement was agreed. Sinner is banned from tournaments until early May but will be allowed to return to official training activity on April 13th.
Sinner has spent 37 weeks as world No.1 and is on the verge of overtaking Andy Murray (41 weeks) and Gustavo Kuerten (43 weeks). In an email exchange with the ATP, it was confirmed that Sinner’s No.1 tally count will not be adjusted in any way to factor in his ban. Whilst he is banned from the Tour, there was no sanction placed on his ranking.
“His (Sinner’s) weeks as number one will continue to be counted,” the ATP told Ubitennis.
As for the players hoping to topple Sinner from the top spot in the coming months, Zverev says the absence of his rival will have no impact on his objectives. A view that has also recently been echoed by Carlos Alcaraz, who is currently third in the world.
“I think whether he’s suspended or not right now, it doesn’t change my goals in a way,” Zverev told reporters at the Rio Open.
“The goals are still the same. I’m still working on the things that I want to improve, and at the next Grand Slam, he’s (Sinner) going to be there again,so that doesn’t really change much.
“Me and Carlos, we both see our opportunity now to close up the gap. But we have to focus on our things and we have to win against the other opponents that are in front of us right now.”
Sinner is set to return to action at the Italian Open.
