Inside the doping deal for tennis' world number one

He has won the past two tennis Grand Slams - but less than a month after his Australian Open victory Jannik Sinner is the talk of tennis, after agreeing a doping deal which has seen him banned for three months.

The timing means the men's world number one will be back for the next major - the French Open. Convenient, critics say.

The controversial agreement between the Italian's legal team and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) officials has prompted accusations of favouritism and led to some players questioning their faith in clean sport.

But what really happened behind the scenes? And what impact might this case have on anti-doping?

BBC Sport has spoken to key figures involved to establish the inside story - from the timing of the ban being "compelling" to the "struggle" of convincing Sinner to bear any ban at all when it was accepted he did not intend to cheat.

Little over a week ago, Sinner was practising in Doha as he prepared to play in the Qatar Open.

But he knew things might change quickly.

Behind the scenes there were discussions that would rule him out of that tournament - and the next few months on tour.

In what ended up being a "late night" on 14 February, Sinner's lawyer Jamie Singer was deep in phone calls with Wada's most senior lawyer.

Then, early the following morning, the surprise news emerged that the three-time Grand Slam champion had accepted an immediate three-month ban.

Sinner and Wada announced they had "entered into a case resolution agreement" over his two failed drugs tests last March.

This is a special mechanism that has been in place for the past four years and allows deals to be agreed to conclude doping cases.

"It all happened unbelievably quickly," Singer told BBC Sport. "In a matter of a couple of days, really."

How do you persuade the world number one player to accept a ban for something he believes he is innocent of?

That was the challenge facing Sinner's team.

To understand the extent of that we have to rewind to August when an independent tribunal cleared him of wrongdoing.

It accepted Sinner's explanation that traces of clostebol - a banned anabolic steroid - had entered his system through inadvertent contamination from his physio during a massage.

Wada, while not challenging the tribunal's overall decision, appealed against the panel's ruling that Sinner "bore no fault or negligence".

However, this would have carried a ban of "one to two years" at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Although Wada initially publicly called for this punishment, eventually its officials came to feel this would not be the right outcome.

With time ticking before the Cas hearing in April, Wada made two approaches to Sinner's team for the case resolution agreement.

The first attempt was rebuffed as Sinner's team wanted to submit the full defence case first.

That was handed over on 31 January, and in early February the first "concrete discussions" began after the second approach.

But with Sinner always sure of his innocence and confident he would face no ban, would he accept a three-month suspension?

His lawyer Singer said it was "quite tricky" to convince Sinner to take the offer.

"When I was saying 'well, look, maybe we should settle for three months', he was saying 'well, why would we do that if the first independent tribunal found it was no ban at all, why would I accept three months now?'," Singer said.

"My advice was 'one never knows what's going to happen at a hearing, we know that Wada are pushing for a year, if we don't accept their offer then they will go to court looking for a year and who knows what those three judges could do'.

"So the possibility of three months, in my view, was a good possibility."

Wada felt the independent tribunal should have punished Sinner for strict liability - that he was ultimately responsible for failing the two drugs tests.

Its officials felt pursuing a suspension was key in defending the "important principle that athletes do in fact bear responsibility for the actions of their entourage".

So why was Wada happy to offer Sinner a three-month ban?

Wada's general counsel Ross Wenzel said there wasn't a "fundamental change" in how the agency viewed the case, but it came down to what it considered fair.

"This was a case that was a million miles away from doping," Wenzel told BBC Sport.

"The scientific feedback that we received was that this could not be a case of intentional doping, including micro-dosing."

Had the case gone to Cas, the outcome would have either been a ban of at least a year or Sinner being cleared.

"I'm not sure that a sanction of 12 months in this case - if we'd have forced the tribunal into that position - or a case of 'no fault' would have been a good outcome," said Wenzel.

"One would have compromised an important principle under the code. The other one, in our view, would have been an unduly harsh sanction."

Case resolutions have been allowed since 2021, and Wenzel said Wada had since struck 67 agreements.

The code is set to change from 2027, meaning cases where players have failed tests but were deemed not to be at fault - like Sinner - could be punished from a reprimand to a two-year ban.

"In two years, Sinner would simply have had a slap on the wrist," one source from an anti-doping organisation told BBC Sport.

Some top players continue to believe Sinner has been given preferential treatment because of his status.

Both the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and Wada flatly reject any suggestion that is the case.

But it is clear Sinner - and five-time women's major champion Iga Swiatek, who received a one-month suspension last year after testing positive for heart medication trimetazidine - have benefitted from being able to pay top lawyers to act quickly.

"A majority of the players don't feel that it's fair," said 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

"It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers."

Sinner's lawyer said he thought the swift resolution of the case came down to taking an "unusual" legal approach.

"From day one [Jannik] didn't challenge the science, he didn't challenge the test, didn't challenge the rules," Singer told BBC Sport.

"He accepted, even though it's a trace - it's a billionth of a gram - he accepted that he was liable for what was in his body.

"And so we didn't waste time and money on all of those challenges, which traditionally defence attorneys would throw the kitchen sink at.

"We just focused on the evidence of what actually happened, and when we did that we managed to do that very quickly and demonstrate very plausibly what had happened."

Singer was also aware that the timing of the ban was as good as it could possibly be.

"We can't get away from the fact that you can't choose when these things happen," he said.

"So the fact that Wada approached us and in the next three months there are no Grand Slams, that seemed to me to make their offer more compelling."

Several players believe the timing was suspiciously convenient, with Britain's Liam Broady saying it had impacted Sinner's career as "little as possible".

Asked directly why the deal had come about now, Wenzel insisted it was not taken with the tennis calendar in mind.

"Because of the timing of the Cas proceedings, it happened to be decided on 14 or 15 February, whatever it was, last Friday," said Wenzel. "It was a very late night, and it came into effect immediately, so that is the reason for the timing."

The Professional Tennis Players' Association (PTPA) - an organisation co-founded by Djokovic which aims to increase player power - believes there is a lack of "transparency", "process" and "consistency" in the system.

"Supposed case-by-case discretion is, in fact, merely cover for tailored deals, unfair treatment, and inconsistent rulings," the PTPA said in a statement.

"It's time for change."

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, writing on social media, said he did not "believe in a clean sport anymore".

Another talking point has centred around why Sinner's former physio and trainer - who were both deemed responsible for clostebol entering the player's system - have not faced any action from the authorities.

Physio Giacomo Naldi was treating a cut on his own hand using a popular over-the-counter spray provided by fitness trainer Umberto Ferrara.

Trofodermin is readily available in Italy for skin abrasions, cuts and wounds.

It contains Clostebol, a steroid that can build muscle mass and enhance athletic performance.

Neither Naldi nor Ferrara were found by the independent tribunal to have intentionally acted to break doping rules.

According to Italian law, the packaging on Trofodermin must have a visible "doping" warning.

Over the past few years several Italian athletes - across tennis, football and athletics - have tested positive for clostebol.

Sinner has since parted ways with Naldi and Ferrara, but players, including Broady, have publicly questioned how the entourage of one of the world's leading players could have made such a mistake.

While Sinner serves his ban, Ferrara is continuing to work on the ATP Tour with another Italian player, former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini.

Sinner is allowed to return to competitive action on 5 May - just days before the Italian Open begins in Rome, and before the French Open at the end of the month.

From now until 13 April, Sinner can practise at a private training base, if he does not come into contact with other professional players.

Under Wada rules, he can start 'official training activity' from 13 April.

Sinner is not allowed to attend any ATP, WTA or ITF events in any kind of capacity until the ban is lifted on 5 May.

Since the news of his ban emerged a week ago, Sinner, who lives in Monte Carlo and has family in northern Italy where he grew up, was said by a member of his team to have been "resting" as he takes stock of the situation.

If he returns at the Italian Open, Sinner will likely receive a hero's reception from the home fans who idolise him.

"Most tennis fans here think the ban is absurd and are still supporting him. 'Sinner-mania' has not wavered," Italian journalist Daniele Verri told BBC Sport.

Whether he will receive that type of support at Roland Garros remains to be seen.

The mood within the locker room could also be frosty, given the sceptical public reaction from many.

However, a source close to Sinner said he had also received support from some of his fellow ATP players, pointing to the public comments made by the likes of Casper Ruud, Matteo Berrettini and Lorenzo Sonego.

Asked if Sinner was aware of - and upset by - the negative reaction from some players, the team member pointed to Sinner's repeated comments that he "cannot control what people think or say".

"Jannik is a very resilient young man, and in his own mind he knows he's done absolutely nothing wrong and the process has been absolutely by the book. So I think he's very comfortable in himself," Singer told BBC Sport.

"He keeps off social media where there are an awful lot of people with a platform, and who don't necessarily know the facts of the case, or investigate the facts of the case as much as they might do."

Wada believes the Sinner case has shown the system is working.

But it cannot duck the reality that, for as much as everyone involved might insist this case has been handled by the book, it has left some people feeling very uneasy.

The full fallout and ramifications of the deal may well leave a cloud hanging over the rest of the season.