- 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams spoke out about the recent suspensions involving tennis stars Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek. Both tested positive for banned substances last year.
- Serena’s comments were published in Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” issue on Thursday, April 17.
- She believes her penalty would have been severe, saying, “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 said.
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Serena Williams, who retired from competitive tennis nearly three years ago, still has an enormous influence on the sport. She’s the latest to speak out about the doping controversy that led to the suspension of two of the game’s biggest stars.
Why did Williams speak up about the bans?
Williams believes the men’s top-ranked player, Italy’s Jannik Sinner, got off easy when he received a three-month suspension after testing positive for a banned steroid. Sinner’s suspension ends May 4, just a few weeks before the start of the French Open, so he will not miss a major tournament during his ban.
Time named Williams one of the world’s most important people of 2025 in the magazine’s special “Top 100 Most Influential People” list, released on Wednesday, April 16. In her profile, Williams talked about what it might have been like had she ever tested positive for a banned substance.
“Fantastic personality,” Williams said of Sinner. “I love the guy; I love this game. He’s great for the sport. I don’t want to bring anyone down. Men’s tennis needs him. (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.”
Have other players reacted to the suspensions?
Williams was the world’s No. 1 women’s player for 319 weeks and won 23 major singles titles in her career. She is not the only one who feels there may have been some favoritism for the men’s top player. Novak Djokovic has been outspoken about what he and his fellow active players perceive as uneven testing and punishment from both of the sports anti-doping agencies.
“A majority of the players don’t feel that it’s fair. A majority of the players feel like there is favoritism happening,” Djokovic said in February. “It appears that you can almost affect the outcome if you are a top player, if you have access to the top lawyers and whatnot.”
The complaints also stem from Iga Swiatek’s one-month suspension in November 2024, when the No. 2 ranked women’s player tested positive for a banned substance.
What would the players like to see change?
Djokovic said it’s not a good look for the sport and that he’s discussed with other players how poorly the process worked in both cases.
“Right now, it’s a ripe time for us to really address the system because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work, it’s obvious,” Djokovic said. “So, I hope that in the near future that the governing bodies are going to come together of our tours and the tennis ecosystem and try to find a more effective way to deal with these processes.”
Sinner, who won his third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, is expected back on the court in his home country for the Italian Open on May 7, which is a warm-up for the French Open later in the month.
