Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones.
Speaker 2: This is seven AM.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 2: Yarnick Sinner is defending his title as the world's best
Speaker 2: male tennis player at the Australian Open, but come April,
Speaker 2: he'll be defending himself in another arena, in the court
Speaker 2: of arbitration for sport. Last year, the tennis world was
Speaker 2: shocked by revelations that both Sinner and women's world number
Speaker 2: two Egos Fantec had tested positive for banned substances. Their
Speaker 2: cases were dealt with in private, raising questions about whether
Speaker 2: their high profiles and considerable resources gave them an unfair
Speaker 2: advantage when it came to dodging public scrutiny. Today's sports
Speaker 2: journalist and author of the sub Stack, But do you
Speaker 2: actually like sport? Molly mcelwey on the twin doping scandals
Speaker 2: overshadowing the Australian Open. It's Tuesday, January twenty one. Molly,
Speaker 2: Welcome to seven AM. Thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: So there is one player in particular that I want
Speaker 2: to ask you about. He's a favorite to win. He
Speaker 2: won last year and he's currently the top ranked men's
Speaker 2: player in the world.
Speaker 1: Sinner. What can you tell me about him? Well, Yannick Center.
Speaker 1: Like you say, he's the world number one.
Speaker 3: He's a reigning champion in Melbourne and twenty twenty four
Speaker 3: was really the year of Yannick Center.
Speaker 1: And that's a great sunsation away the Yanick centner.
Speaker 4: So when the Australian Open, he's mad and major happens
Speaker 4: in Melbourne.
Speaker 3: Was the Open last year was his first Grand Slam title.
Speaker 3: He also won the US Open in September, lad th
Speaker 3: first pay.
Speaker 1: Sooner has Josh what the US Hulburn six foot seventy
Speaker 1: five and the Davis Cup with Italy. Yeah, and once
Speaker 1: more he Annic Sinner just too good.
Speaker 4: It's back to back Davis Cup titles. In this golden
Speaker 4: age of Italian tennis.
Speaker 1: He kind of swept through tennis with such ease.
Speaker 3: In a way, he's a player that kind of smothers
Speaker 3: his opponents. He's got an incredible game that allows him
Speaker 3: to kind of dominate other players. He's very complete, which
Speaker 3: is quite rare for someone so young.
Speaker 1: He's twenty three.
Speaker 3: But his character kind of defies maybe the Italian stereotypes.
Speaker 3: I think people expecting an Italian tennis player to be
Speaker 3: kind of fiery, to be passionate on court, to kind
Speaker 3: of bring that emotion, whereas Sinner is the complete opposite.
Speaker 3: He keeps a lit in his emotions throughout matches also
Speaker 3: off the court as well.
Speaker 4: And you're defending champion here, So what is it that
Speaker 4: you love about Australia, these fans, this court?
Speaker 1: What is it that you love about this this country?
Speaker 5: So many things, But you know, moostly the crowd and
Speaker 5: the fan they give me so much support.
Speaker 3: But for sure he's one of the players who is
Speaker 3: being looked at, along with Carlos al Grazers, the future
Speaker 3: of men's tennis. But there's also this kind of dark
Speaker 3: cloud hanging over him as well because he failed two
Speaker 3: drug tests in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Okay, well let's talk about that. Then tell me about
Speaker 2: the drug tests he failed and about how that came about.
Speaker 6: So it all started for Sinner last March, breaking news
Speaker 6: concerning the men's number one Yonick. Sinner tested positive twice
Speaker 6: for a band anabolic steroid at Indian Worlds in March.
Speaker 3: Sinna very quickly told the ITA, which is the International
Speaker 3: Tennis Integrity Agency, that he had an explanation for it.
Speaker 3: They figured out that the source of the possible in
Speaker 3: his system must have come from his physiotherapist who had
Speaker 3: sprayed a cut on his own hand with a substance
Speaker 3: that contained the steroid, and then through a massage session
Speaker 3: he had with Sinner, had inadvertently sprayed that healing spraid
Speaker 3: into his skin.
Speaker 4: Trace elements less than a billionth of a gram of constables.
Speaker 4: That is really a small amount.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a convolution explanation.
Speaker 3: But the Itia accepted it and ultimately found that Sinner
Speaker 3: bore no fault, no negligence in the case, and he
Speaker 3: had not intentionally done anything to dope. The interesting thing
Speaker 3: is that the public didn't find out about these failed
Speaker 3: drugs tests until all this.
Speaker 4: March this year. We didn't know this, but he tested
Speaker 4: twice at the time, we didn't know this, twice positive
Speaker 4: for a constable.
Speaker 1: Which is and that was on the eve of the
Speaker 1: US Open, which he went on to win.
Speaker 3: So it's a strange scenario where the one of the humblayer,
Speaker 3: the guy who's kind of dominating the sport, he fails
Speaker 3: to drug tests and no one kind of finds out
Speaker 3: about it until the agency in charge of doping in
Speaker 3: the sport decides that he bought no negli and he's
Speaker 3: not going to suffer kind of any huge consequences beyond
Speaker 3: losing his prize money from the two tournaments that he
Speaker 3: was competing in at the time with the failed drug
Speaker 3: tests and losing his ranking points from those events.
Speaker 2: Okay, And so I know that Sinner isn't the only
Speaker 2: high profile player to have found himself in a situation
Speaker 2: like this recently. Can you tell me a bit about
Speaker 2: the others?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, along with Sinner, Egosiontech through for the last
Speaker 3: two years has been the world number one. She's now
Speaker 3: the world number two, five time Grand Slam champion. She
Speaker 3: also failed a drug test last year.
Speaker 7: The International Tennis Integrity Agency have confirmed that eagashion Tech
Speaker 7: has accepted a one month suspension under the Tennis Anti
Speaker 7: Doping program.
Speaker 3: After that, she tested positive for a kind of heart
Speaker 3: medication it's called TMZ. She put it down to contamination
Speaker 3: of some medication that she had been taking for years
Speaker 3: for fatigue and for jet lag.
Speaker 5: But I got to say, yeah, for sure, it wasn't easy.
Speaker 5: You know, it was probably like the worst time in
Speaker 5: my life and just having the feeling that everything, you
Speaker 5: know that I kind of built can be taken away
Speaker 5: so quickly because of something you have no control over.
Speaker 1: It just it was pretty crazy for me, and.
Speaker 3: The ITIA and her team were able to establish that
Speaker 3: the batch of the medication that she had taken had
Speaker 3: been contaminated and it was dealt with pretty quickly. She
Speaker 3: tested positive in August, she competed at the US Open
Speaker 3: and then she was given a one month ban, but
Speaker 3: she was able to play out that ban kind of
Speaker 3: in private. She basically told people that she was suffered
Speaker 3: from fatigue and she had changed coaches, so she was
Speaker 3: taking a break from the sport for a month. I mean,
Speaker 3: in staiom Tics case, that's kind of been resolved. She
Speaker 3: served her one month ban. But in the case of Sinner,
Speaker 3: we now have this ongoing saga because WADA have come
Speaker 3: back and appealed the itia's decision.
Speaker 1: On his case.
Speaker 2: Sinner's Australian Open campaign is being overshadowed by a new
Speaker 2: twist in his ongoing doping drama. Well Blake, the World
Speaker 2: Anti Doping Agency, has.
Speaker 5: Appealed the decision that originally cleared Yannick Cinner after he
Speaker 5: tested positive to steroids twice in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: That's going to play out in April and they are
Speaker 3: actually seeking a one to two year bad for him,
Speaker 3: so that could have huge consequences for the sport. All
Speaker 3: the while they played up the Straight and Open this month.
Speaker 2: I mean, what is the conversation that's happening amongst the
Speaker 2: tennis community right now then around whether or not someone
Speaker 2: like Sinner, whose case I suppose now is a bit
Speaker 2: up in the air, should be able to play at
Speaker 2: the Australian Open.
Speaker 1: Given the situation I.
Speaker 3: Mean on the court, it seems like adverc being is
Speaker 3: kind of business as usual.
Speaker 1: You've got Center.
Speaker 6: Dam overcoming adversity, massive result for Yanick Center.
Speaker 1: But he is through to the quart of finance.
Speaker 3: It didn't seem like there was any animal coming from
Speaker 3: the Melbourne cloud here. But we've had people including Curious,
Speaker 3: for example, a huge name in tennis in Australian sport.
Speaker 1: He's called the entire episode disgusting. It's been handled horrifically
Speaker 1: in our sport.
Speaker 4: And two world number ones both getting done for doping
Speaker 4: is disgusting for our sport.
Speaker 1: It's it's a horrible look. Really been heavily cristical of Sinner.
Speaker 5: If my physiotherapist contamine that in me and put me
Speaker 5: in this position, I'd be I'd probably never talk to
Speaker 5: the guy again.
Speaker 1: But he had the guy in these team for five
Speaker 1: months acting like nothing happened. That's SAE susage anything. If
Speaker 1: you ask me.
Speaker 3: It's a really dark cloud that has kind of been
Speaker 3: hovering over tennis. And there's other players who've spoken about
Speaker 3: whether this process has been fair. Someone like two time
Speaker 3: grands I'm champion and another formal world number one, Simona
Speaker 3: Hallop has accused the IDIA of dealing with these two
Speaker 3: cases very differently than how they dealt with Her own
Speaker 3: has dragged out for nearly two years. She received four
Speaker 3: year ban for failing her drug test and how to
Speaker 3: appeal it, and it was eventually reduced to nine months,
Speaker 3: But for her it stinks of being unfair because her
Speaker 3: case was dealt with in a very public way, whereas
Speaker 3: the swimtech and sins what not. And I think the
Speaker 3: main issue here is not the individual cases, but rather
Speaker 3: what this whole saga says about the way that we
Speaker 3: deal with doping and drug testing in sport and whether
Speaker 3: the systems are completely there, whether it's a completely equal
Speaker 3: playing field for everyone.
Speaker 2: Coming up after the break. What happens when you fail
Speaker 2: a drug test and you don't have millions to defend yourself. Molly,
Speaker 2: can we talk a bit more about the equal playing field?
Speaker 2: What does the Sinner and Swantech saga tell you about
Speaker 2: what it requires to get through something.
Speaker 1: Like this unscathed. I mean, the itia maintains that every
Speaker 1: player is treated the same.
Speaker 3: But the problem with the process is that if you
Speaker 3: have more resources available like Sinner, like Siontech, you can
Speaker 3: get through the process quicker, and that makes a huge
Speaker 3: difference to where you ultimately will end up in your career.
Speaker 3: I mean, Top has earned thirty three million US dollars
Speaker 3: in career prize money, Sinner has earned thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Like, they've got a lot of resources behind them.
Speaker 3: They have huge management teams, they've got sponsors, they keep
Speaker 3: track with everything they put in their body, from food,
Speaker 3: from supplements, from medication.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you're a player outside the top one hundred,
Speaker 1: top two hundred, you can barely afford to have a coach.
Speaker 3: So how are you going to assemble this kind of
Speaker 3: incredible team to defend you. It's something that a British
Speaker 3: player in recent years, Tara Moore has spoken about a lot.
Speaker 7: I think I have one of the most crazy stories
Speaker 7: on the tour. You know, I went to Columbia, failed
Speaker 7: the drug test out there, and it's just something I
Speaker 7: never thought I would go through.
Speaker 3: Because she was outside the top one hundred, trying to
Speaker 3: build her career, and when she tested positive for banned substance,
Speaker 3: she ended up losing nineteen months of her career.
Speaker 7: You know, even if in this country, if you murder someone,
Speaker 7: you have the right to a trial, you have the
Speaker 7: right to a lawyer, you have the right, but this
Speaker 7: is like almost the opposite. If you don't have the
Speaker 7: money or the funds, you're guilty.
Speaker 3: It took her longer to prove the source of her
Speaker 3: failed JOUB test. It's been found that hers.
Speaker 1: Was also a case of contamination.
Speaker 3: But in order to get to the point where she
Speaker 3: could prove that she had already fallen six hundred ranking places.
Speaker 3: She's now thousands of pounds in debt to the lawyers
Speaker 3: that she had to employ at different points in this process,
Speaker 3: and her career is kind of in tatters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the stakes couldn't be higher
Speaker 2: in the sense that people want to be able to
Speaker 2: trust that the person they're seeing win actually did win
Speaker 2: and did win fairly totally.
Speaker 3: I mean, we've seen how that has played out in
Speaker 3: much more dramatic ways in other sports, in cycling, for example,
Speaker 3: with the huge kind of drug scandal that erupted in
Speaker 3: the start of the centuries.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a huge, a huge issue for fans.
Speaker 3: People want to be able to get behind people and
Speaker 3: to trust that they are superhuman because they are just
Speaker 3: so good at the sport, not because of any other reason.
Speaker 3: What does it say about the future of Dennis if
Speaker 3: you've got a player like Sinna, who if in acrol
Speaker 3: his appeal happens and he loses and he's given a
Speaker 3: one or two year ban, how do we look back
Speaker 3: on these last few months, How does history kind of
Speaker 3: correct itself? Will we look at these titles as titles
Speaker 3: that need to have kind of an asterisk alongside it,
Speaker 3: because someone like Sinner, of his profile, his stature, his ability,
Speaker 3: he's playing for a space and the kind of history books,
Speaker 3: and it raises all kinds of questions about whether a
Speaker 3: player should continue playing while this process.
Speaker 1: Is going on.
Speaker 3: It's a very kind of delicate balance you've got to
Speaker 3: find in this sport. And I think there's a lot
Speaker 3: of people right now who are questioning whether the powers
Speaker 3: that we have found that delicate balance at all.
Speaker 2: Well, Mollie, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks f having me.
Speaker 2: Also in the news today, Israel has confirmed ninety Palestinian
Speaker 2: prisoners have been freed in the first exchange of the
Speaker 2: ceasefire deal with Hermas. It comes after three hostages freed
Speaker 2: by Hermas have been reunited with their families inside Israel.
Speaker 2: The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, states so
Speaker 2: for every Israeli hostage released, thirty Palestinian prisoners will be
Speaker 2: freed from Israeli jails. And online gambling company sports bet
Speaker 2: is facing a class action lawsuit to recover millions of
Speaker 2: dollars allegedly lost through unlawful in game bets facilitated by
Speaker 2: the company. The class action, launched by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers,
Speaker 2: alleges that so called InPlay bets or live bets that
Speaker 2: involve betting on a sporting event after it has commenced
Speaker 2: are prohibited in Australia. The lawsuit is open to anyone
Speaker 2: who lost winnings using this service in the past six years.