Tennis icon Serena Williams has spoken out about what she perceives as a double standard in the way doping punishments are applied within professional tennis. In a candid interview with Time magazine, the 23-time Grand Slam champion expressed frustration over the lenient penalty imposed on men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner following a doping violation, suggesting that she would have faced far harsher consequences had she been in his shoes.
Williams, who was named to the 2025 Time100 list of most influential people, highlighted the disparity in treatment between male and female players when it comes to doping cases. “I love the guy, love this game. He’s great for the sport. Men’s tennis needs him,” she said. “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.”
Sinner, who accepted a three-month ban in February 2025, tested positive for clostebol, an anabolic agent, but maintained that the trace amounts found in his system were the result of a trainer’s use of a cream containing the substance. The relatively short suspension sparked controversy and raised questions about potential preferential treatment and inconsistencies in how doping cases are handled in the sport.
Williams, reflecting on her own career, emphasized the scrutiny she faced and the extreme care she took to avoid any doping violations. “I was paranoid,” she joked. “You would have heard about [a doping case against me] in another multiverse. I’d have ended up in jail.”
Sinner, who is the reigning Australian Open and US Open champion, is eligible to return to competition on May 4. His case is one of several recent doping controversies in tennis, including the one-month ban given to women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek for testing positive for trimetazidine, and the case of Simona Halep, whose four-year suspension for using roxadustat was reduced to nine months after an appeal.
Despite her retirement from competitive tennis following the 2022 US Open, Williams admitted that she still misses the sport. “I miss it a lot, with all my heart. I miss it because I’m healthy,” she shared. “If I couldn’t walk, or if I was so out of it, I wouldn’t miss it as much.”
