Sinner parts company with fitness coach, physiotherapist after doping ruling

Jannik Sinner has parted ways with his fitness coach and physiotherapist, the two men at the heart of the doping case involving the world’s top-ranked player that rocked the tennis world this week.

A spokesperson for Sinner said Friday that Umberto Ferrara, Sinner’s fitness coach, and Giacomo Naldi, his physiotherapist, would no longer be a part of the team that has helped the 22-year-old Italian reach the pinnacle of the sport.

“We have decided to part ways and are not working together anymore,” Sinner’s spokesperson stated on behalf of the team. “We wish them the best of luck.”

Naldi had not accompanied Sinner to any events since Halle, a June grass-court tournament in Germany that serves as a tuneup for Wimbledon. Ferrara had not been with Sinner since Wimbledon, which ended in mid-July.

Sinner pulled out of the Olympics, citing tonsillitis. He then traveled to North America for the hard court swing, losing his quarterfinal match at the National Bank Open in Montreal to Andrey Rublev. He then won the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

An independent tribunal convened by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted Sinner’s explanation that his two adverse analytical findings (AAF) for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid, were caused by the actions of Naldi and Ferrara. It found “no fault or negligence” on Sinner’s behalf, but stripped the Italian of his ranking points, prize money, and results from the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California, where the first positive test took place on March 10.

According to the full decision of the tribunal, released by the ITIA on Tuesday after a hearing on August 15, Ferrara purchased a product called Trofodermin in Italy in February. This is a spray that is used to heal cuts, and it is available over-the-counter in Italy. Clostebol is one of the ingredients.

Naldi then cut himself using a scalpel that he used to treat callouses on Sinner’s feet at the tournament, before using that spray to help heal the cut. He subsequently gave Sinner a massage on his back and applied treatments to his feet. Sinner suffers from a skin condition that causes itching, and when he scratches himself he causes small cuts.

The ITIA-convened tribunal determined that this explanation for the clostebol entering Sinner’s system was plausible. Two independent review boards, also convened by the ITIA, reached the same conclusion after Sinner appealed against the two provisional suspensions that are mandatory in the case of an AAF. The review boards upheld those appeals, which meant that Sinner could continue to play while under investigation. It also meant that those provisional suspensions remained undisclosed to the public.

Clostebol is an old steroid that was once at the center of the notorious East German doping scandals of the 1970s and 1980s. It can help build muscle mass and expedite recovery from intense workouts. Its presence in those healing creams available in Italy and other countries has been well-known to those who stay up to date with anti-doping information for several years, especially among Italian sports figures who have tested positive for it for similar reasons.

(Andy Cheung/Getty Images)