🔗 Share this article Djokovic Delivers Caution to Jannik Sinner: Doping Ban Will Follow Him Like a "Shadow" The tennis star has warned Jannik Sinner that his three-month doping suspension will linger over his career like a "cloud" – and raised doubts about the timing of the sanction in the previous season. The Ban Explained Sinner completed a three-month prohibition in February 2025 after the World Anti-Doping Agency approved his account that a prohibited performance-enhancing substance, clostebol, had entered his system accidentally. "This shadow will trail him just as the Covid controversy will follow me, for the remainder of our respective careers," Djokovic stated in an interview on a popular YouTube program. "It's just something that, it was so major, and when that happens, with time it may lessen, 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." The Champion's Viewpoint The Serbian player stated that Sinner, a regular practice partner, "didn't do it on purpose", but he then scrutinized how the Italian managed to complete his ban without missing a grand slam. "The absence of openness, the irregularity, the convenience [of] the ban coming between the slams, so he avoids skipping important competitions – it's just it was very, very odd," he further commented. Broader Tennis Community Response "I am dissatisfied with how the situation was managed and it was evident so many other players, both male and female, who had some similar situations coming out in the media and complaining that it was a preferable treatment."