Andy Roddick has weighed in on the ongoing controversy involving Jannik Sinner and his escaped drugs ban.
Sinner is the US Open top seed, with the world number one heading into the event as the Cincinnati Open champion.
But the Italian has come under ahead of the US Open, with Sinner escaping any ban for his two failed doping tests at Indian Wells.
Nick Kyrgios and Denis Shapovalov reacted to Sinner’s escape, after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said he was not at fault.
The 2024 Australian Open champion returned a positive test during Indian Wells in March, and carried another eight days later.
Andy Roddick texts Jannik Sinner’s coach about drug test
But it has been ruled that his physiotherapist accidentally transferred the banned substance, clostebol, to his patient.
Tennis icon Roddick has now issued his verdict on the controversy after talking with Sinner’s coach Darren Cahill.
Speaking on Served with Andy Roddick, the American said: “This is from Darren Cahill, who I was on text with this morning, who was Jannik Sinner’s coach.
“The facts are really clear, it will be a challenging couple of weeks with every player being asked about it, but that’s normal, expected.
“The amount in his system is one billionth of a gram or 58,000 times smaller than a grain of salt, which is completely consistent with the explanation.
“The explanation is that his trainer had a cut, tried to heal it with some cream which is legal where he’s from but not legal here and massages Jannik.
“Jannik apparently has psoriasis, he rubs into the wound, and that’s the way they think it came up on a test.”
Jannik Sinner hit with controversy right before US Open
The ban controversy will be the last thing that Sinner wants ahead of his bid to win a second Grand Slam title of the year.
He proved his worth on the hard courts earlier in 2024 in Australia, with the Italian now aiming to win his second major title at the US Open.
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But the top seed will undoubtedly be impacted in some form by all of the attention that he is getting and will continue to get at Flushing Meadows.
All he can do is practise hard and ignore all of the outside noise, although it remains to be seen how the crowd will treat him on court.
His fellow professionals meanwhile will undoubtedly have mixed feelings on the situation, with Kyrgios and Shapovalov having very little sympathy.
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