Pioneering legal representation in tennis: The PTPA’s Athlete Counsel & Equity (ACE) Program

On 4 and 17 April 2024, Jannik Sinner, the number 1 ATP singles player, received notification from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) that two urine samples he provided during routine anti-doping tests in March 2024 had showed the presence of metabolites of Clostebol, an anabolic androgenic steroid and that, as a result, he was provisionally suspended from all events and official training activity. On each occasion, Sinner’s team acted immediately, filing an urgent application the same day for the provisional suspension to be lifted. Both applications were granted. Having filed a response on 29 May 2024, the ITIA formally charged Sinner on 30 May 2024 and a hearing took place on 15 August 2024.

On 19 August 2024, an Independent Tribunal concluded^[1] that Sinner bore no fault or negligence for the presence of the Prohibited Substance in his body and should therefore serve no period of ineligibility. On 26 September 2024, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lodged an appeal of the no fault or negligence finding and pursued a period of ineligibility of between one and two years. On 15 February 2025, WADA announced^[2] that it had entered into a case resolution agreement with Sinner, with the player accepting a three-month period of ineligibility, having accepted he was responsible for the negligence of members of his entourage which caused the Prohibited Substance’s presence. The period of ineligibility agreed with WADA will expire on 5 May 2025, days before the Italian Open, the only Masters 1000 event in his home country, and prior to the next Grand Slam, the French Open, which will take place in June 2025. The period between Sinner’s Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) and the decision in the ITIA proceedings was four months. The entire process, including WADA’s appeal and the case resolution agreement, took ten months. Throughout this period, Sinner was able to compete professionally on the ATP tour and in Grand Slams.

Sinner’s case – along with the recent one-month suspension accepted by defending French Open champion, Iga Świątek, for the presence of trimetazidine – has drawn obvious comparisons^[3] with the experience of lower ranked tennis players^[4], with less access to financial and legal resource, following notification of an AAF. By way of example, British tennis player Tara Moore, then the number 389 WTA singles player, was provisionally suspended on 27 May 2022 following an AAF from an in-competition anti-doping test in April 2022. Moore was not formally charged for some seven months, until January 2023, and the hearing took place almost a year later, in December 2023. On 22 December 2023 an Independent Tribunal concluded^[5] that Moore bore no fault or negligence for the presence of the Prohibited Substance in her body. The period between Moore’s AAF and the decision in the ITIA proceedings was 21 months. In January 2024, the ITIA indicated that it would appeal the Independent Tribunal’s decision^[6] to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). That appeal is due to be heard almost three years after Moore’s AAF.