Roberto Carballes Baena joined the bandwagon in criticizing the ITIA for favoring Jannik Sinner in the alleged doping case.

World No.1 Jannik Sinner found himself at the receiving end of some harsh criticism from the tennis fraternity and his fellow players on the tour as the 23-year-old was cleared of any wrongdoing despite two positive doping tests. Among many, Spanish player Roberto Carballes Baena also expressed his disappointment slamming the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for having “different rules for different players.”

As the ITIA announced that Sinner is not guilty of doping as the banned substance- clostebol – a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass entered his body by no mistake of his own, quite a few players did not like the verdict. Nick Kyrgios, Denis Shapovalov, Tara Moore, and Liam Broady were among the critics of the ITIA.

Carballes Baena also joined the bandwagon as he shared a post showing the reactions of different players to this doping row on his Instagram story. The Spaniard then wrote a caption, accusing the ITIA of treating different players differently.

 

The post from Carballes Baena gained a lot of traction with netizens agreeing about the unfair treatment of other players who tested positive for doping. They agreed with the claim that the ITIA should have handled the Jannik Sinner doping case differently.

The ITIA has come under fire for its alleged preferential treatment of Jannik Sinner while the cases of other players were handled differently. Among the many recent cases of Simona Halep and Tara Moore are being cited by the critics.

While Halep was initially banned for four years after she tested positive for doping, Britain’s doubles player Moore inadvertently served a 19 months ban. Halep, however, got her ban reduced to nine months following a successful appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). The Romanian was cleared of the charges as CAS felt the consumption of the banned substance was unintentional.

Meanwhile, Moore was also cleared of the charges last December as she bore “No Fault or Negligence” for the presence of a prohibited substance in her body at the time of the anti-doping test. However, the Briton could not compete for more than a year and a half as she was provisionally suspended.

Now, with Sinner being allowed to compete despite two positive doping tests has raised questions. The ITIA, however, has justified its position saying that a provisional suspension was applied automatically but, as Sinner challenged it successfully, he was able to keep playing.