Doping Again !

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Doping Again !

PaulM · Tennis legend

No agree CD. And Tara wouldn't have gone down that route anyway because she wouldn't have wanted to admit the violation because she believed she could be fully exonerated. Which she was in the end.

(I've edited my original post as in typing too quickly I had originally written something that suggested Tara was found to have committed a violation but circumstances meant no punishment, when actually she and Gatica were cleared of the original violation).

-- Edited by PaulM on Saturday 15th of February 2025 02:25:07 PM

9vicman · Satellite level

In fact Case Resolution Agreements are not unusual and often been reached prior to an independent tribunal rather than an appeal as in the case.

What is different on this occasion is that Sinner challenged the initial finding and the tribunal found in his favour. It was only when WADA appealed, and it was generally believed that CAS would not find in his favour, that Sinner (or Sinner's lawyers) chose to settle.

Presumably Sinner could have accepted the charge in the first place and ITIA might very well have given him a 3 month suspension, and we could have avoided all these additional accusations of special treatment.

But the timing sucks. Why couldn't have Sinner's lawyers settled as soon as WADA submitted their appeal in September, but instead wait until after the Australian Open. I mean I know why, but that's where the look isn't good, particularly after the provisional suspension was overturned too.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

9vicman wrote:
In fact Case Resolution Agreements are not unusual and often been reached prior to an independent tribunal rather than an appeal as in the case.

What is different on this occasion is that Sinner challenged the initial finding and the tribunal found in his favour. It was only when WADA appealed, and it was generally believed that CAS would not find in his favour, that Sinner (or Sinner's lawyers) chose to settle.

Presumably Sinner could have accepted the charge in the first place and ITIA might very well have given him a 3 month suspension, and we could have avoided all these additional accusations of special treatment.

But the timing sucks. Why couldn't have Sinner's lawyers settled as soon as WADA submitted their appeal in September, but instead wait until after the Australian Open. I mean I know why, but that's where the look isn't good, particularly after the provisional suspension was overturned too.

Interestingly though, messages on X this weekend from Liam and others suggest they werent aware of the CRA route. Is it well known, or does it need good lawyers to negotiate - again, not a good luck if that leads to less financially well off players not being able to take the same route as more well known players

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

To be honest, most of the tennis players barely know what the everyday tennis admin rules are - if it's not something they use regularly, they don't know it - and you can understand the problem

I've seen countless players confused by the SE rules, wildcard allowances, all of the tiddle rules

So it's absolutely no surprise that they wouldn't be aware of the CRA route

Bet they are now, though

9vicman · Satellite level

I suspect that there is some confusion over what is meant by case resolution agreement. In previous instances, you were talking a player being charged with a doping violation, the player accepting responsibility, and an agreement being reached about an appropriate sanction without the need for a independent tribunal.

I appreciate these circumstances are very different. Sinner did challenge the initial finding (and successfully through the tribunal), and it was only when WADA appealed to CAS that Sinner eventually cut a deal.

I read online that WADA approached Sinner (and not the other way round) regarding the CRA which really surprised me. The fact that they would appeal only to settle out of court, which suggests that they wanted to guarantee that Sinner serves some sort of ban (and avoid setting a precedent for cases such as these) and not risk CAS turning down the appeal.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Liam's views on the rather convenient timing of the ban.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

So Sinner was banned from Feb 9 onwards - yet he is in various papers training at Doha on 13th Feb. Is that allowed? I thought a ban was a complete ban for the duration.