"Disgraceful";"This will be Jannik Sinner's legacy" - Fans appalled at Italian maintaining rankings lead after Indian Wells despite doping ban

Jannik Sinner is currently serving his three-month ban from tennis. As a result of the suspension, the Italian couldn't participate in the recently-concluded 2025 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Despite this, the World No. 1's lead at the summit of the ATP Tour rankings has grown and several fans expressed their disapproval of the development.

Jannik Sinner's closest adversaries, No. 2 Alexander Zverev and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, were both unsuccessful at the year's first Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells. While Zverev suffered a shocking second-round loss to Tallon Griekspoor, Alcaraz, who won the title at Indian Wells in 2023 and last year, was ousted by eventual champion Jack Draper in the semifinals.

These results led to Zverev and Alcaraz losing 190 and 600 points respectively, stretching Jannik Sinner's lead as World No. 1 by 3385 points.

Many fans on X (formerly Twitter) were disgruntled by the stretching of Sinner's lead at the top of the ATP Tour rankings. Most brought up his doping row, which ended with the Italian settling with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on a three-month ban.

"Disgraceful tbh. Anyone failing drugs tests should have all their ranking points deducted in my opinion," a fan wrote.

"He will FOREVER be that No. 1 player that got caught doping and got banned, this will be his legacy," commented another.

"Why is he not suspended from the rankings as well. If he is suspended from playing then him holding back any ranking should be suspended. He should not get any credit of atp tour for this period of suspension. Otherwise its not really suspension. This whole thing is so so stupid," another fan chimed in.

Here are some more reactions from fans to Sinner increasing his lead over Zverev and Alcaraz on the ATP Tour rankings:

"Nothing to be proud of considering they rigged it for the cheat," opined one fan.

"If he is allowed to continue getting accidental contaminations of clostebol by his physios he will probably be No. 1 until he burns out mentally—tennis is such a clean sport!," another sarcastically added.

"Dark magic for a very dark persona," yet another fan weighed in.

Jannik Sinner twice tested positive for the banned substance Clostebol last year, but successfully proved that the contamination stemmed from massages performed on him by his former physio. According to the evidence provided by the Italian's team, the physio was using a Clostebol-containing medication to treat a cut on his finger, and massaged Sinner without wearing gloves.

The three-month suspension was meted out to the three-time Grand Slam champion because he was held responsible for the actions of his team members. The ban polarized the tennis world, with several high-profile names such as Nick Kyrgios and Toni Nadal voicing contrasting takes.

Nick Kyrgios lambasted Jannik Sinner ban; Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni vouched for Italian's innocence

Nick Kyrgios (Source: Getty)

Nick Kyrgios, one of Jannik Sinner's fiercest critics since news broke about the Italian's Clostebol-positive tests last year, delivered a scathing reaction to the No. 1 settling for a three-month ban with WADA. Kyrgios took to X and wrote:

"So WADA come out and say it would be a 1-2 year ban. Obviously Sinner's team have done everything in their power to just go ahead and take a 3 month ban, no titles lost, no prize money lost. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist."

However, Rafael Nadal's uncle Toni opined later that Sinner shouldn't have been banned at all. The veteran coach vouched for the Italian's innocence citing their personal relationship.

"I've already said it many times and explained it, I'm against the sanction. I know Sinner personally and he had no intention of committing a crime and you can't treat a person like that for a mistake that happened by chance," Toni Nadal said.

Jannik Sinner is set to return in time for the 2025 Italian Open in the buildup to this year's French Open.