Jannik Sinner’s recent doping suspension has caused controversy in the tennis world and has opened up many discussions into past doping cases that have had significantly different outcomes.
The 23-year-old was found with traces of Costebol in his system, a prohibited steroid in August of 2024. After winning the Australian Open in January 2025 the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided on a three-month suspension for the world No.1 which began on the 9th of February.
This suspension will lift just before the Rome Masters in the lead-up to the French Open in May. The decision has been met with criticism due to its circumstances and the perceived leniency of the penalty.
So how does this case compare to other similar cases over time?
Jannik Sinner of Italy (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The French tennis player Richard Gasquet tested positive for cocaine in his system in 2009. Initially he received a 12-month ban, which was later overturned to two and a half months.
Gasquet claimed the substance entered his system after kissing a woman who had used the substance. The tribunal said that this was a likely outcome and that the amount of cocaine found in Gasquet’s body was so small that if he was tested just a few hours later the test would have turned up negative.
More recently Max Purcell, Australia’s two-time doubles grand slam winner was handed a doping ban in December 2024. Purcell took to Instagram to explain that he had “unknowingly received an IV infusion of vitamins above the allowable limit of 100 ml.”
After learning this the Australian requested to enter a provisional suspension from the ITIA, this went into effect on the 12th of December 2024 and caused Purcell to miss his home grand slam.
Investigations are ongoing and it is unknown how long Purcell will be suspended for.
Around the same time Sinner was found to have traces of prohibited substance in his system so was five-time grand slam winner Iga Swiatek.
Swiatek tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine after taking melatonin to help with jet lag and sleep issues. The violation was found not to have been intentional, leading her to receive just a one-month ban.
This ban resulted in the player missing just three tournaments and having to forfeit her prize money from the Cincinnati Open.
Laura Barquero, a Spanish figure skater has recently been given a six-year ban after testing positive to clostebol, the same drug Sinner tested positive for.
In September 2022 Barquero was handed a one-year suspension after testing positive for unintentional use of clostebol at the 2022 Winter Olympics. After this suspension ended she once again tested positive for clostebol, leading to her six-year ban.
WADA have since addressed the difference in Sinner and Barquero’s cases claiming that the figure skater’s version of how the substance entered her system was unconvincing whereas the circumstances around Sinner’s was.
The varying lengths of suspensions in these cases continue to fuel debates over consistency and fairness in enforcement of ant-doping regulations.
