Sports
Why the WADA appeal into Jannik Sinner doping case cuts to the heart of anti-doping priorities
At the heart of the doping case against Jannik Sinner, the top-ranked men’s tennis player in the world, is an existential debate about the policing of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport.
Are the primary goals to catch cheats and prevent athletes from gaining unfair advantages over their peers? What happens when the enforcers of the World Anti-Doping Code see violations but uniformly agree that an athlete didn’t gain or chase such an edge?
Numerous athletes have found themselves in the middle of this debate and now the two-time Grand Slam champion is having his turn, with one anti-doping agency taking another anti-doping agency to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
An apology to anyone with a sensitivity to the alphabet soup of sports bureaucracy.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed a ruling from an independent panel convened by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which found that the 23-year-old bore “no fault or negligence” after twice testing positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid on the WADA prohibited substances list. The panel still found that he had committed two anti-doping violations.
WADA said in a statement that it is not seeking for any of Sinner’s results to be disqualified, aside from his run to the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open, held at Indian Wells, Calif. (Those results were already disqualified in the decision shared by the ITIA).
It is contesting the dismissal of any blame attributable to Sinner, which, it says, “was not correct under the applicable rules”.
WADA therefore accepts the final ruling that Sinner did not intentionally dope, but is still making a point about its own credibility by seeking to change the terms of that ruling.
Sinner, who recently won the U.S. Open, could be banned from tennis for between one and two years if WADA prevails.
GO DEEPER
World anti-doping agency seeks ban of up to two years in Jannik Sinner case appeal
Sinner was informed of his positive tests in late March. The ITIA said he tested positive for clostebol on March 10, at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and again on March 18, between that tournament and the Miami Open. The results carried mandatory provisional suspensions, which Sinner appealed.
At each appeal, and in a final hearing on Aug. 15, three separate independent tribunals convened by the ITIA and conducted by Sport Resolutions, an arbitration company, accepted the Italian world No. 1’s explanation for the positive tests. His physiotherapist, Umberto Ferrara, had brought Trofodermin, an over-the-counter healing spray containing clostebol, to Indian Wells. His physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, cut his hand and used the spray on that cut. Naldi then conducted massages on Sinner, which led to contamination with the substance on Naldi’s skin getting to Sinner’s skin.
GO DEEPER
Jannik Sinner built the team that made him world No. 1. Then he blew it up
Those tribunal decisions meant that Sinner first avoided the two provisional suspensions, and then, in the final hearing, a “period of ineligibility”, which would have been a dreaded, reputation-destroying ban. The first two successful appeals also meant that his case remained private until that final hearing, under ITIA protocol.
At the final hearing, the independent tribunal ruled that Sinner was not at fault for the positive tests. It said he received no advantage from clostebol, a notorious and antiquated anabolic steroid that East Germany used as part of state-sponsored doping programs in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Even if the administration had been intentional, the minute amounts likely to have been administered would not have had any relevant doping, or performance enhancing, effect upon the player,” said Professor David Cowan, a member of the tribunal who explained the ruling.
Still, since the clostebol was in his system, Sinner was found to have committed two anti-doping violations, for which the ITIA stripped him of his ranking points, prize money and results from Indian Wells. But it did not seek a suspension.
After six months of playing under a secret cloud, Sinner won the U.S. Open, the first tournament after the ITIA publicized the case and final ruling.
But three weeks later, on Saturday, WADA publicized its appeal against that ruling. The case now goes to CAS, generally the final arbiter of sports doping litigation.
Jannik Sinner is currently playing in Beijing, at the China Open. (Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)
Sinner is none too pleased. In a statement issued that Saturday, Sinner noted that there he had already gone through three separate hearings that confirmed he hadn’t intentionally broken the rules or competed unfairly.
“I understand these things need to be thoroughly investigated to maintain the integrity of the sport we all love,” he said. “However, it is difficult to see what will be gained by asking a different set of three judges to look at the same facts and documentation all over again.”
Sinner and WADA now find themselves in difficult territory. Ever since the ITIA’s announcement, Sinner has indirectly faced criticism — some of it more vituperative than verifiable — over perceptions of preferential treatment. Tennis is a sport of double standards, from better court allocations and higher appearance fees for higher-ranked players, to a keener ear from tennis authorities on the biggest issues in the sport. Sinner, as world No. 1, has more powerful and more readily available legal resources than most tennis players would in a similar situation.
While in other anti-doping cases, players have been provisionally suspended for many months while under investigation, it remains that the so-called silence over his case was not an element of preferential treatment, and instead adherence to the ITIA’s process for investigation.
Other Italian tennis players who have tested positive for the same substance as Sinner have been suspended and found at fault. Stefano Battaglino, another Italian tennis player, received a four-year ban in 2023. Battaglino failed to prove that his testing positive for clostebol was inadvertent after it was detected during a random drug test at an ITF event in Tunisia.
Jannik Sinner lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals at Indian Wells, where the first positive test was recorded. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
This is one of the most complicated factors. Italy has a widespread and readily acknowledged issue with athletes testing positive for clostebol, because it is freely sold in the country as an ingredient in healing products — including the Trofodermin that Ferrara brought to Indian Wells. WADA has stated that around half the cases of positive clostebol tests come from the country.
WADA, meanwhile, is dealing with the aftermath of its decision not to investigate 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the same heart drug seven months before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The swimmers were allowed to compete, and several of the athletes went on to win medals. In its statement on the case, issued in April 2024 after what it called, “Some misleading and potentially defamatory media coverage,” the agency said that it “was not in a position to disprove the possibility that contamination was the source” of the positive tests.
Travis Tygart, the leader of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and a key figure in the cases of Lance Armstrong in cycling and Alberto Salazar in track, on Saturday tied their situations to WADA’s decision on Sinner.
“It’s unimaginable that WADA leaders would appeal this case when the rules were clearly followed by tennis yet do nothing when China swept 23 positive tests under the carpet that indisputably violated the rules,” Tygart said.
“As athletes are held to high standards by anti-doping authorities, it’s high time for WADA decision makers to also be.”
WADA responded to that statement by criticizing Tygart. “It is strange for Mr. Tygart to comment on a case when he is not involved, has not reviewed the file and does not have all the facts to hand. It is equally strange he would then compare it to a completely unrelated case in which he was also not involved and does not have the facts to hand,” said James Fitzgerald, a WADA spokesperson. “It might be more productive for Mr. Tygart to spend his time working on the problems in U.S. anti-doping rather than constantly commenting on what is going on elsewhere in the world.”
WADA acknowledges that the detection of clostebol has been greatly enhanced in recent years by advances in technology that make it possible to detect lower concentrations.
That has helped catch some instances of doping, especially when it comes to hard-to-detect new substances. But it has also led to capturing innocent athletes who, judging by the levels of a given substance detected, are not doping — at least not with the substance that triggers a positive test.
WADA’s rules, in this case, appear to still be catching up with its testing advances, creating an imbalance between science and administration as athletes see their careers and reputations at stake.
(Top photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)
DENVER — Before Anze Kopitar left the ice after the final regular-season home game of his NHL career, he told the fans he was saying good-bye, not farewell.
He would return, he promised, in the playoffs.
He’ll make good on that pledge Thursday when his Kings and the Colorado Avalanche face off in Game 3 of their first-round series at Crypto.com Arena. But it could prove to be a short encore because after losing the first two games of the best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff in Denver, the Kings need a win Thursday or in Game 4 on Sunday to extend both their season and Kopitar’s Hall of Fame career.
The Kings’ — and Kopitar’s — last six playoff appearances have all ended after just one round. And they’re halfway to another first-round loss this year, though they probably deserve better after giving the league’s best team everything it could handle, only to lose twice by a goal, including a 2-1 overtime loss in Game 2 on Tuesday.
“To a man we’re playing hard,” interim Kings coach D.J. Smith said. “We hoped to split here, but regardless we’re gonna have to win at home. We’ve got to find a way to win a game.
“Clearly good isn’t enough.”
Kopitar announced his retirement before the start of this season, the 20th in his Hall of Fame career. And while many of his teammates talked of their desire to see their captain hoist the Stanley Cup one more time, just making the playoffs appeared beyond the Kings’ reach until the final two weeks of the regular season.
Colorado, meanwhile, led the league in everything, winning the most games, collecting the most points, scoring the most goals and allowing the fewest. The Kings? Not so much. They gave up 22 more goals than they scored, worst among playoff teams, and needed points in 11 of their last 13 games just to squeak into the postseason as the final wild-card team.
Colorado left wing Joel Kiviranta skates under pressure from Kings center Scott Laughton and goaltender Anton Forsberg during Game 2 of their first-round NHL playoff series Tuesday in Denver.
(Jack Dempsey / Associated Press)
Yet two games into this series, it’s been hard to tell the teams apart on the ice. The Kings have outhustled, outhit and outskated the Avalanche for long stretches. But those moral victories have been their only wins.
Asked if he can take solace for the way the team has played, goalie Anton Forsberg, who was outstanding in his first two career playoff games, stared straight ahead.
“No,” he said. “We wanted to go to home [with] a win.”
Forward Trevor Moore was a little more forgiving.
“We would have liked to steal one,” he said. “But you can’t look back. You have to look forward. Confidence-wise, we hung in there with them for two games and we’ve been competitive. I think we could have won either night.”
They won neither night, however, which leaves little margin for error in the next two games.
If the Kings lacked wins in Denver, they didn’t lack chances. On Tuesday they had a man advantage for nearly a quarter of the first 25 minutes and had five power plays and a penalty shot on the night.
When Quinton Byfield’s second-period penalty shot was stuffed by Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood, a group of Avalanche fans celebrated by pounding on the protective plexiglass behind the Kings’ bench with such force it shattered, raining shards down on the team’s coaches
“Whoever the guy [was] just kept pushing and pushing and pushing,” Smith said. “I looked back because it hit me a bunch of times, then it broke.”
The Kings couldn’t score on the power play either until Artemi Panarin finally found the back of the net with less than seven minutes left in regulation, giving the team its first lead of the series.
“We had every opportunity,” Smith said. “You’ve got to be able to close it out.”
They couldn’t. So when Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog evened the score 3 ½ minutes later, the teams headed to a fourth period.
The overtime was the 34th in 84 games for the Kings this season, an NHL record by some distance. But it ended in the team’s 21st overtime loss when Nicolas Roy banged home a rebound 7:44 into the extra period.
“We had some good looks. I thought we really had the momentum in overtime,” Smith said. “Maybe a bad bounce or a turnover, whatever, it ends up in your net. But to a man this team is playing hard and we’ve got to find a way to win.
“I expect that we’ll be better at home.”
If they aren’t, the Kings face another long summer and Kopitar’s retirement will start earlier than he had hoped.
Sports
Austin Reaves nearing return for Lakers as Luka Doncic remains out indefinitely with hamstring strain: report
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In early April, with just five games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that star guard Luka Doncic would be sidelined at least until the NBA playoffs.
Doncic’s setback was a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, an MRI confirmed. The reigning NBA scoring champion sustained the injury during an April 2 game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers also entered the playoffs without another key member of their backcourt, Austin Reaves.
The shorthanded Lakers upset the Houston Rockets in the opening game of their first-round Western Conference series Saturday. Ahead of Game 2 on Tuesday, the Lakers reportedly received a clearer update on the health of at least one of their injured stars.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves brings the ball up court against the Washington Wizards in Los Angeles on March 30, 2026. (Ryan Sun/AP)
Reaves, who was diagnosed with an oblique strain, appears to be progressing toward a return later in the first-round series if it extends to six or seven games. If the Lakers advance sooner, he could be on track to return for the Western Conference semifinals.
According to ESPN, Reaves recently returned to the practice court for 1-on-1 drills. The 27-year-old will still need to progress to 2-on-3 and then 5-on-5 work before he can be cleared for playoff action, but he appears significantly further along than Doncic, who remains out indefinitely.
Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center on March 21, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images)
Doncic is unlikely to play in the first round, regardless of the series length. ESPN footage showed him on the practice court on Tuesday, though the six-time All-Star was not doing high-intensity work.
2025-26 NBA PLAYOFF ODDS: SPREADS, LINES FOR FIRST-ROUND SERIES
The Rockets, despite being widely favored in the opening round playoffs series, also contended with key injuries. Kevin Durant missed Game 1 with a knee contusion. He was cleared to play in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. shoots the ball against the Lakers during Game 1 in the NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on April 18, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
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LeBron James scored 19 points, while Luke Kennard led Los Angeles with 27 in Saturday’s win.
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Watching junior right-hander Fabian Bravo of Sun Valley Poly High pitch for the first time, there was something strangely familiar about his windup.
When he turned his back to reveal he was wearing No. 32, everything made sense.
He had to be a fan of Sandy Koufax, the 1960s Hall of Fame left-hander for the Dodgers.
Two friends sitting next to me refused to believe it.
“No way,” one said.
“Kids today have never heard of Sandy Koufax,” another piped in.
Only after Bravo threw a three-hit shutout to beat North Hollywood 3-0 was my belief vindicated.
“I come into the back with my arms and it’s a little bit like a Sandy Koufax kind of thing,” he said. “I wear 32 too. He was the starting pitcher for the Dodgers and was good in the World Series.”
Koufax was perfect-game good on Sept. 9, 1965, against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium, striking out 14.
Bravo started learning about No. 32 when his parents would bring him to Dodger Stadium as a young boy.
“I always saw No. 32 retired on the wall,” he said. “Once I got to know him, I was able to see who he really was. I felt I could really copy him and get myself deeper into history.”
Bravo is no Koufax in terms of being a power pitcher. He’s 5 feet 10 and 140 pounds. Since last season, when he changed his windup to briefly emulate Koufax’s arms going above his head, he has a 12-3 record. This season he’s 3-1 with a 1.50 ERA.
“I saw his windup and he looked like he was calm and composed and I tried it. I felt more of a rhythm. I was able to calm down and pitch better,” he said.
After Bravo’s arms go up over his head in his windup, he also does a brief hesitation breathing in and out before throwing the ball toward home plate.
“My dad always taught me to breathe in, breathe out before I do anything,” he said.
Nowadays, teenagers seemingly don’t pay much attention to greats of the past, from old ballplayers to Hall of Fame coaches. Ask someone if they know John Wooden, kids today probably don’t. He did win 10 NCAA basketball titles coaching for UCLA. And who was Don Drysdale? Only a Dodger Hall of Fame pitcher alongside Koufax from Van Nuys High.
Bravo is fortunate he’s seen Dodger broadcasts mentioning Koufax at the stadium and on TV, motivating him to learn more, which led to seeing his windup on YouTube.
His older brother also wore No. 32, so no one was getting that uniform number other than a Bravo brother at Poly.
There is another Bravo set to arrive in the fall. Julian Bravo will be a freshman left-handed pitcher and wants No. 32.
“While I’m there he’s going to have to find a new number,” Fabian Bravo said.
Julian might also want to help his big brother gain a few pounds at the dinner table.
“My brother takes food from me,” he said.
As for recognizing Bravo’s Koufax connection, it was No. 32 that provided the clue. How many pitchers in the 1970s were choosing No. 32? A lot. And it’s great to see a 17-year-old in 2026 paying tribute to one of the greatest pitchers ever.
Emulating Koufax is hard, but forgetting him is unforgivable.
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