Top-ranked Jannik Sinner is “very confident” a positive result can be achieved after WADA appealed his doping case

SHANGHAI (AP) — Senior tennis player Jannik Sinner is “very confident” he will avoid a doping ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed a decision to clear him of wrongdoing after two positive doping tests.

Montreal-based WADA announced on Saturday that it is seeking a ban of one to two years for the US Open winner and has lodged an appeal with the Swiss Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“I’m still surprised, but I will cooperate as before,” Sinner said on Friday, a day before his first match at the Shanghai Masters. “I had three hearings where the three hearings gave me my best shot, which, as you know, was good. But now let’s see.

“But I am very confident that it will turn out very, very positively. I would be very, very surprised if it was the other way around.”

The appeal means the case may not be resolved before Sinner begins defending his Australian Open title in January. Sinner can continue playing while the appeal is heard.

Sinner, 23, learned of WADA’s decision at the start of the Chinese Open, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final on Wednesday.

“It’s certainly not a situation that I feel comfortable in because I thought it was over. And now again. So it’s not easy,” he said.

Sinner tested positive for an anabolic steroid twice in March but was not banned in an independent tribunal decision announced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency in August as the ITIA found the Italian player was not at fault.

Sinner’s accepted explanation was that the banned performance enhancer entered his body inadvertently through a massage from his physiotherapist, who had treated his own cut finger with a spray containing the steroid.

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