American tennis great Serena Williams said she would have been banned for 20 years and stripped of her Grand Slam titles had she failed drug tests like men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner did last year.
Sinner accepted a three-month ban in February following an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had challenged an independent tribunal’s decision to clear him of wrongdoing after two positive tests for the anabolic agent clostebol.
“I love the guy, love this game,” Williams, the 23-time Grand Slam winner, told Time magazine after being named as part of the Time100 list of most influential people. “He’s great for the sport. I’ve been put down so much, I don’t want to bring anyone down. Men’s tennis needs him.
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“[But] if I did that, I would have gotten 20 years. Let’s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me.”
Williams, 43, said she took extra care with what she put into her body during her career in case she ingested something that could get her in trouble. She joked that a PED scandal would have landed her “in jail.”
“You would have heard about it in another multiverse,” she said.
Reigning Australian Open and US Open champion Sinner, whose ban will end May 4, has maintained his innocence, saying the trace amounts of clostebol in his doping sample were due to a massage from a trainer who used the substance after cutting his own finger. His case, however, has raised questions about whether he received preferential treatment from the authorities.
Iga Swiatek’s case also caused some surprise, with the women’s world No. 2 accepting a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine.
Former world No. 1 Simona Halep was also banned despite denying knowingly taking the banned drug roxadustat, and her four-year suspension was cut to nine months in 2024 after an appeal at sport’s highest court.
Williams, who last played at the 2022 US Open, told Time that she misses playing tennis.
“I miss it a lot, with all my heart. I miss it because I’m healthy,” Williams said. “If I couldn’t walk, or if I was so out of it, I wouldn’t miss it as much.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
