"Sinner shouldn't have played at Wimbledon," the British press's 'tribute'

The Clostebol case fuels controversy after the Italian's triumph

"Don't celebrate. Sinner shouldn't have been at Wimbledon." Jannik Sinner triumphs at Wimbledon 2025, achieving the most prestigious victory of his career. Among the chants celebrating the Italian's feat, there are discordant voices pointing the finger at the world number one. The British press, in its post-tournament review, gives significant weight to the Clostebol case and the incident that led to the Italian's three-month suspension. A positive test for contamination and not a case of doping, as WADA also certified. However, it's not enough to prevent the Wimbledon triumph from being 'tarnished'.

The Daily Mail was the one to come down hard on the matter. On the afternoon of July 14th, while Sinner was packing to leave London, it issued an article by Oliver Holt: "Don't celebrate these Wimbledon winners ," he wrote, extending the discussion to Iga Swiatek, who also recently suffered a suspension for testing positive. "It's shocking for tennis that they failed doping tests; they should never have been there."

The topic, undeniably, is a hot topic in the British press. The BBC also covers the matter retrospectively, taking a less categorical approach. "For the first time in Wimbledon history, both the men's and women's champions served suspensions for banned substances, fueling controversy that accompanied the celebrations. The sporting authorities have accepted both players' versions that the positive tests were caused by contamination, and many are clearly willing to look beyond the brief suspensions. But others are concerned about the impact all this could have on tennis's image."

The broadcaster also reported Sinner's words in an interview on July 14: "Well, Iga and I talked about it yesterday, and in a way we celebrated even more. It was a very difficult time for her and for me too. Only I, my team, and the people close to me know exactly how it went. There will always be people who believe in you and people who don't, but that's true for everything. So yes, in a way it's a very special victory, because the last four or five months have been very, very stressful."

The BBC doesn't question Sinner's presence at Wimbledon . The Daily Telegraph, however, does explicitly question it. "The question is whether Sinner, banned from the sport for three months after testing positive twice for clostebol, a banned steroid, should have competed. Celebrating two Wimbledon champions banned for doping is hard to swallow."