Things are not looking good for Jannik Sinner currently, with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealing to the Court of Arbitration of Sport. At the beginning of his victorious US Open 2024 campaign, Sinner was caught in a doping controversy, as it was revealed that he tested positive twice for an anabolic agent in March, but avoided a ban.

An independent tribunal accepted his defence that the test results were affected by unintentional contamination.

On Saturday, the WADA said in a statement, “WADA is seeking a period of ineligibility of between one and two years.”

The WADA appeal fully stated, “The World Anti-Doping Agency confirms that it has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday 26 September in the case of Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner, who was found by an independent tribunal of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to be free of fault or negligence for testing positive twice for Clostebol, a prohibited substance, in March 2024. WADA believes that the finding of no ‘fault or negligence’ is incorrect under the applicable rules and is therefore seeking a period of ineligibility of between 1 and 2 years. WADA is not seeking a disqualification for any result other than that already imposed by the first instance tribunal. As the matter is now pending before CAS, WADA will not comment further at this time.”

Sinner is currently in action in Beijing, and will be trying his best to stay from the controversy. Reacting to the development, the Italian revealed that he was ‘very disappointed and also surprised’.

“We can’t control everything. Of course I’m very disappointed and also surprised about this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings. All three hearings were very positive for me. I didn’t expect that. I knew for a couple of days that they were going to appeal and that today it would become official. Maybe they just want to make sure that everything is in the right place,” he said.

The comment came after his second round win vs Roman Safiulin in the China Round. He sealed a 3-6 6-2 6-3 win and will take on Jiri Lehecka in the next round.