Same banned substance, different sanction. Italian tennis player Stefano Battaglino tested positive for clostebol during his participation in the 2022 M15 Casablanca tournament in Morocco, and has been under provisional suspension since February 2023.
Fellow Italian Jannik Sinner on the other hand, tested positive twice for the same substance in an anti-doping control carried out during Indian Wells, but was not suspended. The world number one only lost the points and prize money he would have earned from the tournament.
Despite both testing positive for the same substance and both claiming innocence, they have had different resolutions. Battaglino’s appeal was rejected and he has been provisionally suspended since February 2023. He tested positive on 14 September 2022 while competing in Morocco, following an anti-doping test. The anabolic steroid improves athletic performance and is therefore on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of prohibited substances.
Battaglino, who was ranked 760th in the world at the time, claimed that the infringement was accidental due to contamination from a massage given by his physiotherapist. His lawyers were unable to contact the physiotherapist, so the independent tribunal ruled that he could not prove that it was accidental. They concluded that the infringement was intentional, which led to a four-year ban.
The Italian appealed to the CAS, but his appeal was dismissed because his arguments seemed insufficient to classify his positive test as involuntary. Battaglino will therefore have to serve his entire sanction, from February 2023 to January 31, 2027.
Sinner cleared to play
A few days after Stefano’s sanction, Sinner tested positive for the same substance. He tested positive twice in an anti-doping test carried out during Indian Wells, but this later became known. Unlike his compatriot, Jannik was fully acquitted because he was able to prove how the contamination occu pmrred.
