Doping clouds tennis talk at with Sinner and Swiatek facing scrutiny

Jannik Sinner of Italy poses with ball kids and the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Australia

It is a topic that shadowed tennis in 2024 and is still a talking point as the 2025 Grand Slam season opens at the Australian Open on Sunday (Saturday EST): doping and the cases involving Jannik Sinner — which is still not resolved — and Iga Swiatek.

Both spent much of last year at No. 1, and Sinner still will hold that spot in the ATP rankings when he steps on court at Melbourne Park to begin the defense of his championship, one of two major trophies he won last year.

Swiatek, a five-time Slam champ and the woman leading the WTA rankings most of the past three seasons, is No. 2 behind Aryna Sabalenka, who will be chasing her third consecutive title in Australia.

“Obviously, there are going to be some negative comments,” Swiatek said. “You’re not going to avoid that.”

Most players prefer to remain silent when asked about the cases. But there are those who have been happy to weigh in, including 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic, raising questions about whether Sinner and Swiatek were treated the same as other players facing similar circumstances and why their situations were kept under wraps for months.

“I sit and wonder, ‘Why such a big difference in treatment and judgment?’” was two-time major champion Simona Halep’s reaction to Swiatek’s punishment. “I can’t find, and I don’t think there can be, a logical answer.”

Halep initially was banned for four years after testing positive for the banned drug Roxadustat at the 2022 U.S. Open, then had that penalty reduced to nine months on appeal — although she already had been off the tour longer than that. She was supposed to compete at Melbourne Park for the first time in three years but withdrew from qualifying because of knee and shoulder pain.

No one has been louder about the subject lately than Nick Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up who missed nearly all of the past two seasons because of injuries. He has been commenting regularly, in real life and online, even taking a jab (that he said was in jest) at Cruz Hewitt after the 16-year-old son of Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton posted a photo with Sinner from a practice session.

“It’s been handled horrifically in our sport. Two world No. 1s, both getting done for doping, is disgusting for our sport,” Kyrgios said at the Brisbane International, the first event of his comeback. “It’s a horrible look.”

Where do things stand with Sinner’s positive drug tests?

Sinner was the dominant player in men’s tennis last year, and there’s little reason to think that won’t continue. In 2024, he went 73-6 with eight titles, including at the U.S. Open, and led Italy to the Davis Cup. He heads into the Australian Open on a 14-match winning streak.

Hanging over it all is this: Two positive tests for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid in March were made public in August; the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) determined he shouldn’t be suspended because the exposure to Clostebol was considered accidental — the result of a massage from a trainer who used the substance after cutting his own finger. HOWARD FENDRICH, MELBOURNE, MDT/AP