Novak Djokovic Breaks His Silence on Jannik Sinner Scandal: 'Red Flags'

Italian superstar Jannik Sinner has established himself as one of the top men's tennis players in the world, regularly jostling with Carlos Alcaraz for the top spot atop the ATP rankings.

However, as Sinner competes in the ATP World Tour Finals in Turin, Italy, this week, tennis legend Novak Djokovic decided to speak rather openly about a doping scandal Sinner found himself in back in 2024.

Sinner Doping Scandal

On 20 August, an independent tribunal announced that Sinner had positive results for the banned substance clostebol in separate tests from March 2024.

Sinner explained that the substance had entered his body inadvertently through massages administered by his physiotherapist, who had used a treatment which contained clostebol to treat an injury on his own hands.

The tribunal accepted Sinner's explanation and found that the superstar bore "no fault or negligence," and no period of ineligibility would apply. However, the tribunal did determine that Sinner would forfeit the prize money and ranking points earned at the Indian Wells tournament held in March, during which he failed the tests.

The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the decision. In February of 2025, a settlement was reached under which the positive drug tests were determined to be due to inadvertent contamination. As a result of the settlement, Sinner was suspended for three months.

Djokovic Addresses the Incident

Djokovic, arguably the greatest and most accomplished player of all time, pulled out of the ATP World Tour Finals as a result of an injury. After pulling out of the field, Djokovic sat down for an extensive interview with British journalist Piers Morgan.

During the interview, Djokovic offered some rather candid thoughts on the Sinner scandal, where he called out some "red flags" and said that while he did not believe Sinner did anything intentionally, he does think that his punishment was a bit "odd" and hypocritical.

“When this happened, I was shocked, honestly,” Djokovic told Morgan. “I do think that he didn’t do it on purpose. But the way the whole case was handled is so many red flags.”

Morgan went on to suggest that Sinner was treated differently because he was the top-ranked player in the world at the time.

“If he’d been #500 in the world, I think he would’ve been banned,” Morgan said.

Djokovic seemed to agree with this assessment.

“That’s exactly… the lack of transparency. The inconsistency. The convenience of the ban coming between the Slams so he doesn’t miss out… It’s just… it was very very odd,” Djokovic said. “So I really don’t like how that case was being handled.”

“You could hear so many other players, both male and female, who had some similar situations coming out in the media and complaining that it was preferable treatment,” Djokovic added.

Djokovic said he believes that Sinner did not intend to break the rules, but he said it's "not right" that Sinner received such a light punishment when other players have been banned for years for similar infractions.

“I want to believe him. Knowing 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 he's banned for a provisional three months or whatever it was, it's not right,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic Has 'Compassion' For Sinner

Despite the criticism of the situation, Djokovic did praise Sinner for the way he handled the whole ordeal, bouncing back and winning several more Grand Slams since the suspension.

“It's not easy for him. I do have a sense of empathy and compassion for him,” Djokovic said. “I think he's handled the storm in the media that keeps on coming back every once in a while. He's handling that very maturely and steadily, and kudos to him for that. And in the midst of all of that, he's still dominating and playing incredible, winning slams.”

That said, it's clear that Djokovic thinks he got a light punishment for the infraction.