A new update in the Jannik Sinner doping case has dropped, which led to Nick Kyrgios once again taking another shot at the Italian.
Just as the world No. 1 was at the start of his Beijing campaign, he was notified by the WADA that they would appeal the ITIA's verdict in his doping case. In their statement, the world's biggest anti-doping agency shared that they would seek a one to two-year ban for the two-time Grand Slam champion.
Seven days later, the CAS confirmed that they received the appeal that the WADA filed and that the investigation will take place, which includes hearings and everything else that will be required before reaching the ruling.
"The Player, the ITIA, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) (collectively, the Respondents) have been notified of the CAS appeal. In its appeal to the CAS, WADA seeks the annulment of the Challenged Decision and a new decision ruling that Jannik Sinner has committed two ADRVs pursuant to Articles 2.1 and/or 2.2 TADP, without application of Article 10.5 TADP ("No fault or Negligence")," the CAS said in a statement.
"WADA requests CAS to impose a sanction of a period of ineligibility between one and two years on the Athlete and to confirm the disqualification of all competitive results obtained by Jannik Sinner during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells/USA.
The CAS arbitration proceedings have commenced. In accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration (the CAS Code), the arbitration rules governing CAS procedures, the parties are exchanging written submissions and the Panel of arbitrators that will decide the matter is being constituted.
"Once constituted, the Panel will issue procedural directions for the next phase of the procedure, including the holding of a hearing. Following the hearing, the Panel will deliberate and issue an Arbitral Award containing its decision and the grounds for it. At this time, it is not possible to indicate a time frame for the issuance of the decision.
"The CAS Panel's decision will be final and binding, with the exception of the parties' right to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited grounds."
Kyrgios reacts to the CAS statement on Sinner
During the ITIA's initial investigation, the Italian tennis star was allowed to keep playing. Following the WADA appeal, nothing changes in that regard as the world No. 1. And the 2022 Wimbledon finalist doesn't think it should be that way.
"Whys he still playing lol," Kyrgios wrote on X when reacting to the latest development in the case.
By now, pretty much everyone knows that the 29-year-old has been taking shots at Sinner since the moment his doping case came to light. Mainly, the majority of the Australian's criticism is centered on his belief that the case wasn't handled properly and that there was no way the 2024 Australian Open champion should have been allowed to keep playing after twice failing a doping test in March.
After the WADA lodged an appeal in the Sinner case, Kyrgios laughed at the 23-year-old but also used it as an argument for his claims.
"Hahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahaha god I hope the people running this thing don't care that he is number 1 and has money," Kyrgios wrote in the comment section of an Instagram post last week.
In another post, the Australian also wrote: "Hahaha maybe not so innocent after all eh?"
Do you remember what Sinner said when asked about Kyrgios' comments?
During this past US Open - where the Italian won his second Grand Slam - the 2022 Wimbledon finalist was taking constant shots at him. That led to a reporter directly asking the world No. 1 during one of his press conferences in New York if he had something to say about that. He refused to do so.
"I don't want to respond on what he said. Everyone is free to say everything. It's ok," Sinner said.
Meanwhile, the WADA decision left the 23-year-old stunned because he thought that he did enough to convince them that there was no need for them to make that move.
"Obviously I'm very disappointed and also surprised of this appeal, to be honest, because we had three hearings. All three hearings came out very positively for me. You know, I was not expecting it. I knew it couple of days ago, that they were going to appeal, that today it's going to go official, so... I'm just surprised that they appealed," the Italian tennis star said in Beijing.
Since then, Sinner finished as runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz in the Beijing final and defeated Taro Daniel in his Shanghai Masters opener.
