The tennis star has warned Jannik Sinner that his three-month ban for doping will linger over his career as a constant shadow – and raised doubts about the timing of the sanction last year.
Sinner completed a three-month suspension in February 2025 after the World Anti-Doping Agency approved his account that a banned anabolic steroid, clostebol, had entered his system accidentally.
"That cloud will follow him just as the Covid controversy will follow me, for the rest of his, or my career," Djokovic stated in an interview on Piers Morgan: Uncensored.
"It is a situation where, it was so major, and after such events, over time it will fade, but I don't think it will disappear. There's always going to be a specific segment of individuals that will continually reference the incident."
Djokovic expressed belief that Sinner, his frequent training companion, "didn't do it on purpose", but he then scrutinized how the Italian managed to complete his ban without missing a grand slam.
"The absence of openness, the inconsistency, the convenience [of] the ban occurring between major events, so he doesn't miss out the others – it simply appeared highly unusual," he further commented.
"I am dissatisfied with how the case was being handled and it was evident numerous fellow athletes, both male and female, who had some similar situations coming out in the media and complaining that it was a preferable treatment."
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