Ex-tennis player Navratilova urged to overhaul WADA system
Former world number one and 18-time Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for filing an appeal against Italian tennis player Yannick Cinner. Sportskeeda reported on January 12.
"I'm going to be very diplomatic and say it smells bad. The whole system needs to be broken and built anew. There is so much focus on WADA now because of what they did with the Chinese swimmers, Schwentek and the world number one. They were definitely not doping," Navratilova stated.
She said the agency should find athletes who actually take banned drugs, not those who put massage creams on their bodies or take sleeping pills for five years and now it turns out to be tainted.
She also questioned the widespread belief that Sinner had been charged before the verdict.
"I think you are guilty until proven innocent. As far as Sinner is concerned, he thought he was done with it, and now what's the appeal? I just don't understand it. There are a lot of nuances that need to be clarified in this case," the former tennis player said of the WADA appeal.
The publication reports that on January 10, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the hearing on the doping case of Yannick Sinner will be held in mid-April.
Earlier, on November 28, 2024, the Tennis Adverse Events Authority (ITIA) announced on its website that world number two Schwentek had tested positive for doping in August 2024, with a minimal amount of trimetazidine found in the sample.
On October 2, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic criticized the anti-doping system because of the case against the world number one, Italian Yannick Cinner, who is accused of doping. The tennis player himself explained that the banned substance entered his system as a result of contamination from a member of the support team. An independent tribunal found his explanation credible.
It was reported on August 20 that Cinner had twice tested positive for doping at the Masters Series tournament in Indian Wells, USA, but avoided disqualification. He was suspended twice but successfully appealed the sanction on both occasions and continued to compete.
