In a major setback to tennis star Jannik Sinner, his nomination for the annual World Sportsman of the Year Award has been revoked by the Laureus Academy. The decision comes after the ATP world number one was handed a three-month ban over doping.
The Italian accepted the ban earlier in February after admitting “partial responsibility” to testing positive for anabolic agent clostebol which the 23-year-old said happened due to team mistakes.
The ban will end on May 4 allowing Sinner to return in time for the French Open, the season’s second Grand Slam event of the year.
Laureus Academy’s Statement On Jannik Sinner
“We have followed this case, the decisions of the relevant global bodies and – whilst we note the extenuating circumstances involved – feel that the three-month ban renders the nomination ineligible,” Laureus Academy chairman Sean Fitzpatrick said in a letter addressed to nomination panel members.
“Jannik and his team have been informed.”
Laureus World Sports Awards
The Laureus World Sports Awards have been presented since 2000 honouring individual and team achievement in sport. The nominees are selected by a 69-strong jury of sporting greats who make up the Laureus Academy.
This year the nominees for the 2025 awards will be announced on March 3 in Madrid. With Sinner’s removal from the nomination list, this year’s award will now be contested by the remaining shortlisted athletes.
Sinner, who retained his Australian Open title in January 2024, failed two drug tests in March 2024 but was allowed to keep competing while he appealed against his case.
The positive tests came to light days before the US Open, when an independent tribunal cleared him of wrongdoing, plunging the year’s final Grand Slam into controversy.
In 2024, fellow tennis star Novak Djokovic took the sportsman of the year award for a record fifth time.
Also Read: Is Jannik Sinner’s Controversial 3 Month Suspension Too Convenient?
The WADA Contention
The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), which had sought to ban the three-time Grand Slam champion from the sport for at least one year, had challenged a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency not to suspend Sinner for what they judged was an accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid last March.
Sinner had explained that trace amounts of Clostebol in his doping sample was due to a massage from a trainer who used the substance after cutting his own finger. His explainer had been accepted.
