"Facts matter more" - Andy Roddick offers full-throated support to Jannik Sinner amid drugs saga, slams critics for questioning Italian's reputation
Andy Roddick made a deep dive into the facts and figures of Jannik Sinner's failed drug test controversy. The American advised everyone to wait for the complete story to come out before asserting their judgments on situations.
Roddick recorded an episode of his podcast called 'Served with Andy Roddick' live at the US Open. A major part of the conversation was around the current World No. 1's doping saga.
Sinner had tested positive twice for a banned substance in March and his provisional suspension on both occasions was overturned due to his appeals being accepted.
He lost the ranking points and prize money earned at Indian Wells, the event during which he tested positive but he was cleared of any fault by the ITIA and an independent tribunal.
Roddick tried to state all the facts he had during his podcast. He mentioned that facts mattered more to him than feelings.
"I care. I think facts matter more than feelings in this scenario. And I'm not going to tell you the way to feel. I'm going to tell you as much information, and then judge away, but at least judge away knowing processes, etc," Roddick said (11:40).
The former US Open champion narrated a story of a current ATP player he refused to name. Roddick said that this player received an email that stated he had tested positive for a banned substance and had five days to give a detailed account of what had happened.
The player wrote his whole truth, and it was later revealed that 40 players were contaminated with the same banned substance due to eating a specific dish during a Challenger event.
Roddick wanted to explain that it is not easy to pinpoint where you were contaminated from and it can happen to anyone. He believes people should wait for the complete story to come out before bringing anyone disrepute.
"Think what you want, suspect what you want. Also, put yourself in the shoes of anyone who gets terrible reputational news. I would just say allow for grace to have the story come out," Roddick stated (23:35).
Andy Roddick answers burning questions surrounding Jannik Sinner's doping saga
When developments regarding Jannik Sinner's failed drug tests were made public, several questions were being asked by fans and other personalities. Andy Roddick tried to answer some of those on his podcast.
Firstly, he revealed that players get tested at every Grand Slam, so there is no question of the Italian doping his way into winning the Australian Open less than two months before he tested positive.
"You get tested at every slam, so there's no chance he was not clean at the Australian Open if he tested as much as he did," Roddick said at (10:00).
Further, he also revealed why news about Jannik Sinner's drug tests was made public recently even though they happened in March. He cited a text from someone he did not name and read:
"The question that I had, along with others initially, was, 'How did this not become public before now?' March test, we found out yesterday. I was under the impression that once you test positive, you are notified, it is to be made public. That's false, which was my ignorance. It only goes public once the final tribunal decision is handed down, which, in Sinner's case, was yesterday."
Roddick explained:
"You're allowed to appeal during the appeal process until you're guilty, so innocence until proven guilty is something we hear a lot."
"We're good at headlines, and then we're good at reacting off of headlines" - Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick continued to talk about how it was wrong to react without having all the facts.
"As a general society, we're not really great at nuance at scale, right? We're good at headlines, and then we're good at reacting off of headlines," Roddick said (at 26:00).
"This stinks because instead of breaking down players, we've now wasted 25 minutes of your time [speaking to his audience] explaining the process of peeing in a cup. But that, I mean, that's where I'm at. I don't know if that's much of an opinion, I just, I just have grace," he added.
Roddick clapped back at an X account earlier that asked him to share his opinion on the Jannik Sinner controversy. The American firmly stated he would not share any 'kneejerk opinions' and would rather have all facts before making a statement.