Australian tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and John Millman have completely different personalities. And they certainly don’t see eye to eye on Jannik Sinner’s steroid crisis.
The 23-year-old Sinner has escaped a ban after failing two doping tests, with Kyrgios calling the results “ridiculous”.
Millman disagreed, pointing out that the Italian had a small amount of clostebol, an anabolic steroid, in his system.
‘Before I jump to conclusions: Jannik Sinner had less than a billionth of a gram in his body… I believe him,’ Millman tweeted on X.
‘We may need to adjust the threshold to take contamination into account.
“Why is there so much fuss about all this when we allow athletes in all sports, including tennis, to abuse the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)?
‘Moreover, the ITIA handled this 1000x better than the butcher job with Simona [Halep]…..Jannik is about the best person on tour.
‘At least read the report before you pass judgment.’
Australian tennis stars Nick Kyrgios and John Millman have completely different personalities – and they strongly disagree when it comes to Jannik Sinner’s steroid crisis
After Sinner escaped a suspension, Nick Kyrgious called the outcome ‘ridiculous’ – his Australian tennis player John Millman disagreed and argued the Italian should not be suspended
A relieved sinner declared that he planned to ‘put this very challenging and extremely unhappy period behind him’
Nick Kyrgios took to social media to challenge Sinner’s use of ‘massage cream’
Millman’s tweet drew a swift response from Kyrgios, who doubled his position.
‘Well, at this point it’s players who are blowing [cocaine] receive a harsher punishment than players who use steroids,” he tweeted.
Sinner tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol during the tournament in Indian Wells on March 10 and then again eight days later.
The Australian Open winner was provisionally suspended but successfully appealed and was now allowed to continue playing on the ATP tour while the International Tennis Integrity Unit assessed all the evidence.
Sinner stated that the banned substance entered his body when his physiotherapist Umberto Ferrara used a spray containing clostebol to treat a wound on the tennis star’s finger.
The 23-year-old’s team explained that Ferrara had bought the spray in Italy, one of the few countries where people can buy products containing clostebol without a prescription.
News of Sinner’s failed tests was announced Tuesday by the International Tennis Integrity Unit, which stated that Sinner was “not at fault or negligent.”
However, Sinner was awarded 400 ranking points and $250,000 less than the amount of ranking points and prize money he had earned at Indian Wells.
The investigation revealed that Sinner had a minuscule amount of clostebol in his body, equivalent to less than a billionth of a gram.
“There is no indication that the small concentration in his system would have had a performance-enhancing effect,” the court said.
Sinner said in a statement: ‘I will now put this very challenging and deeply unfortunate period behind me.
‘I will continue to do everything I can to ensure that I remain compliant with the ITIA Anti-Doping Programme and I have a team around me that complies rigorously with this.’