Novak Djokovic has claimed that Jannik Sinner’s doping ban will follow him like a ‘cloud’ for the rest of his career in professional tennis.
World No.2 star Sinner twice tested positive for a banned substance, clostebol, a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass, in March 2024.
After Sinner’s two failed drug tests, the 24-year-old was eventually suspended from all tennis competitions from February 9, 2025 to May 4, 2025 after a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Sinner’s explanation that he was accidentally contaminated by a massage from his physiotherapist, who used a spray containing the banned substance to treat a finger cut, was accepted by WADA.
WADA said Sinner ‘did not intend to cheat’ but the timing of his suspension, which allowed him not to miss any Grand Slam events, was called into question with some claiming the Italian received preferential treatment.
Serbian tennis legend Djokovic has now compared the fallout from Sinner’s doping ban to his own deportation from Australia three years ago after entering the country without a Covid-19 vaccine.
‘That cloud will follow him as the cloud of Covid will follow me for the rest of his, or my career in this case,’ Djokovic said in an interview with Piers Morgan.
‘It’s just something that, it was so major, and that when it happens, it’s just, you know, over time, it will fade, but I don’t think it will disappear.
‘There’s always going to be a certain group of people that will always try to bring that forward.’
Quizzed about how the case was handled by WADA and the International Tennis Integrity Agency, Djokovic added: ‘There is the lack of transparency.
‘The inconsistency, the convenience of, you know, the ban coming, between the [Grand] Slams, so he doesn’t miss out the others. It’s just, it was very, very odd.
‘And so I really don’t like how the case was being handled and you could hear so many other players, both male and female, who had some similar situations coming in, you know, coming out in the media, and complaining that it was a preferable treatment.
‘So I think essentially, I want to believe and I knowing and my history with him, I think he didn’t do it on purpose.
‘But of course, he is responsible, because those are the rules. You are responsible when something like this happens.
‘And so when you see someone for something very similar or [the] same being banned for years, and then he’s banned for original, whatever three months, or whatever it was, it’s just, it’s not right.’
Earlier this year, Djokovic said Sinner’s suspension was ‘not a good image’ for tennis and compared his case to Simona Halep and Tara Moore, who were hit with lengthier bans in cases which dragged on much longer.
Sinner made his return to the ATP Tour in May and went on to reach the French Open final before clinching the Wimbledon title in July.
He has won four Grand Slam singles titles to date, winning the 2025 Australian Open and was a runner-up at this year’s US Open.