“They were not treated the same as Sinner” – Machac highlights apparent inequalities in anti-doping system

The Czech feels “sorry” about tennis players who were barred from playing professionally right after testing positive for banned drugs

Julien Nouet / UTS

Ayush Vashistha

February 17, 2025

Czech’s Tomas Machac hinted at bias in the tennis anti-doping system following Jannik Sinner‘s suspension in the Indian Wells drug violation case. Sinner failed two dope tests during the ATP Masters 1000 event in March 2024 but continued competing on the tour, while ITIA investigated him for the violation in secrecy.

The ITIA went public with its trial in August last year and handed Sinner a clean chit and stripped him of the prize money he earned at Indian Wells. A few months later, WADA knocked on CAS’ door, demanding an ineligibility period of 12-24 months for the Italian.

On Saturday (February 15, 2025), however, it emerged that Sinner and WADA agreed on a three-month ban without CAS’ involvement, inviting a mixed reaction from the tennis world.

World number one Jannik Sinner has accepted an immediate three-month ban from tennis.

It comes after he reached a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency over his two positive doping tests last year, with his suspension running from 9th February until 4th May.#BBCTennis pic.twitter.com/oJ58O0SEUe
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 15, 2025

Machac, crowned the latest UTS champion in Guadalajara on Sunday, was prompted during a media interaction to share his thoughts on the WADA ruling. In response, the Czech refrained from commenting on Sinner’s situation directly but highlighted the struggles of other players who found themselves in hot water.

“I really don’t know right now what I can say because I was just winning the trophy and emotion is here for this tournament,” Machac told the media after winning UTS Guadalajara. “But I don’t know I wasn’t there so I couldn’t say and sometimes when you hear something, it can be different so I don’t know what to say.

But the only thing is that I know that a few players were in problems and it’s very strange and not nice that they were waiting one year for a result and they just couldn’t play even one match.”

“This is something what I don’t like and I feel sorry for those players who couldn’t play but in this case, I don’t know. I wasn’t there so I just think that for those I feel really sorry. Those players were positive, show up with a positive test, they couldn’t play even one match, they were guilty or not, they couldn’t play nothing.

“So they were waiting for the results like one year maybe one year and a half and they couldn’t play nothing. They had no money, they couldn’t play tournaments, they lost points and everything, so for those players I feel sorry that they were not treated the same like [as] Jannik. But I wasn’t there even in those cases so I couldn’t say anything, just saying it from my perspective that I’m showing or reading from the media. This is what only information I got.”