It appears that everything in this case was done by the books. The WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) rules and protocols have been followed. The occurrence of a violation demands that the bureaucracy act on it, following established guidelines. The resolution of Sinner’s case was the closest the bureaucrats could come to actually punting.
On his podcast, Roddick cleverly likened Sinner’s suspension, which—surprise, surprise—will end just in time for Sinner to play his native Italian Open in Rome, to a college kid getting suspended from school on the first day of spring break. Thus, Sinner will not miss a single Grand Slam tournament and could very well log a calendar-year Grand Slam. How about that?
However, the suspension also means that Sinner will miss four of the year’s nine prestigious (and remunerative) ‘sub-Slam’ Masters 1000 events, as well as at least two ATP 500 events. All told, his ranking will drop by 1,600 points, leaving the ATP throne up for grabs for either Carlos Alcaraz or Alexander Zverev—although both will have to play extremely well to unseat the champ.
