ROME -- After a difficult few months battling illness and injury, Italian world number one Jannick Sinner is finally back in the spotlight. This time, though, it is not because of his tennis. Sinner may have won the Cincinnati Open on Monday but, on Tuesday, the focus was not on his return to form but a doping charge he had been cleared of. Why then, if Sinner has been cleared, is there still controversy?

 The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed on Tuesday that Sinner had been cleared of doping charges relating to two positive tests for low levels of clostebol at Indian Wells in March. An independent tribunal ruled last week that the Italian bears “no fault or negligence” for having low levels of the banned substance in his system and, as such, Sinner will not face a lengthy ban. Instead, he has been fined 325,000 euros and docked the ranking points earned at Indian Wells.

 Clostebol, considered a weak steroid which helps to build muscle mass, is listed as a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Upon learning the positive results in a drug test in March, Sinner admitted the violation and was automatically suspended. But the Italian appealed the decision and was allowed to play on, winning the Miami Open, reaching the semi-finals of the French Open in June, and earning his status as world number one.

 In a statement released by the Italian on Tuesday, Sinner said, “I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping programme and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”

 The independent tribunal found that Sinner was unaware of being contaminated with clostebol, which entered his system through his physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi. Naldi was using an over-the-counter cream containing clostebol to treat an injury on his own finger, but subsequently contaminated Sinner when massaging the world number one’s open wounds.

 The ITIA’s decision not to ban the Italian, however, has received criticism. Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios called the clearance “ridiculous” on X, while Britain’s Liam Broady, also writing on the platform, said “Whether Sinner is innocent or not, this is not right. Plenty of players go through the same thing and have to wait months or YEARS for their innocence to be declared.”

 Broady could be hinting at the ban given to Romanian Simona Halep, who was handed a four-year ban in September 2023 after testing positive for the substance roxadustat at the 2022 US Open. Halep also argued the intake was not intentional and a result of a contaminated supplement her coaching team had advised her to take. Halep’s ban was reduced to nine months on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and she returned to action in March.

 Sinner’s positive tests for clostebol are also not the first time an Italian athlete has been sanctioned for using the substance. In 2019, the two-time Paralympic 100 metre champion Martina Caironi was suspended, eventually for four months on appeal, for using clostebol in a cream she used to treat an ulcer, despite declaring the presence of clostebol in the cream beforehand. In January 2022, the basketball player Riccardo Moraschini was served a year-long ban for positive levels of clostebol, which he argued was an indirect contamination from a spray used by his girlfriend. More recently, in November 2022, Atalanta defender Jose Palomino was cleared of doping charges by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal after also previously being suspended in July 2022 for using a cream containing clostebol.

 Italy’s problem with clostebol is far from the case of the East Germany doping scandal, which retrospectively revealed that thousands of athletes had been convinced to take the substance without knowing its implications. Italy, unlike other countries, still allows the substance to be administered through over-the-counter creams or sprays to treat minor cuts or wounds.

 Sinner’s clearance is not a conspiracy, as Kyrgios had implied, but instead another signal of Italy failing again to get a grip on the administration of clostebol. Nicola Pietrangeli, one of Italy’s most celebrated tennis stars, went as far to suggest Sinner should appeal again when speaking to Adnkronos.

 “Why did [the ITIA] take away his points and money earnt at Indian Wells if [Sinner] is innocent? I’m sure that he is and, if it were me, I would have appealed to make them give me back the points and money he earnt at the tournament in California.”

 Although it is unlikely Sinner will appeal – given he has escaped a potential two-year ban – the controversy is an unwanted distraction ahead of the US Open, which begins next Monday in New York. The Italian can change the narrative quickly but, in a scenario where the lines are blurred between what is and what is not intentional, Sinner needs to make sure of one thing: his tennis must do the talking.

 bq