Serena Williams Says She Would Have Received a 20-Year Ban in Jannik Sinner Case

Sinner was banned for just three months after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

Serena Williams on Sep 2, 2022. / Danielle Parhizkaran-Imagn Images

Tennis legend Serena Williams knows as well as anyone the pressure professional athletes are under, but she is also well aware of the double standards and favoritism that can come with the career, too.

Case in point: the doping scandal involving the top-ranked Jannik Sinner, who in February accepted a three-month ban in an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). At the time, other pros and sport pundits criticized the punishment as far too light, especially considering it meant Sinner wouldn't miss the French Open at the end of May.

"I love the guy, love this game," Williams told TIME as part of her Time 100 interview, in which she pushed to make clear she does not want to pile on to the young Italian star. "He's great for the sport. I've been put down so much, I don't want to bring anyone down. Men's tennis needs him."

But "if I did that," she continued, "I would have gotten 20 years. Let's be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me."

If she had had a PED scandal, "You would have heard about it in another multiverse," the 23-time Grand Slam winner quipped.

Sinner, a three-time Grand Slam champion, tested positive for banned anabolic steroid Clostebol twice last March. He claimed the trace amounts detected in his sample were accidental and the result of inadvertent contamination on the part of his physiotherapist. The International Tennis Integrity Agency sanctioned the 23-year-old in August 2024 but allowed him to continue playing. WADA later appealed that ruling, with the goal of banning Sinner for at least a year, and a hearing was set for April. But in February, it was announced that both sides has settled on a ban of just three months.

Williams' POV on the matter is likely also informed by what happened to her contemporary Maria Sharapova, who was ultimately banned for 15 months for a similarly unintentional PED offense back in 2016.

"Just weirdly and oddly, I can't help but think about Maria all this time,” Williams told Time. “I can't help but feel for her.”

---

More on Sports Illustrated

feed