Deadline approaching for appeals in case that exonerated US Open champion Jannik Sinner from doping

ROME (AP) — Time is running out for appeals to be filed in the case that exonerated U.S. Open champion Jannik Sinner from doping.

The World Anti-Doping Agency and Nado Italia, Italy’s anti-doping agency, likely have only a few more days to challenge the decision announced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Aug. 20.

There is a 21-day window to appeal that started when the parties received the decision. Any appeal would be filed to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sinner tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but was not suspended because the ITIA determined the banned performance-enhancer entered his system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist.

The doping case was kept secret until last month’s announcement and the top-ranked Sinner went on to beat Taylor Fritz in the U.S. Open final on Sunday.

An appeal could jeopardize his U.S. Open title but Sinner and his legal team have provided detailed scientific evidence to show that his explanation is credible.

Sinner said after winning his second Grand Slam title that the months before his case was resolved were not easy.

“It was very difficult for me to enjoy in certain moments,” he said, “so whoever knows me better, they know that something was wrong. But during this tournament, slowly I restarted to feel a little bit more how I am as a person.”

While other players have expressed concern with how Sinner's case was kept secret, WADA and Nado Italia would likely be interested only in the scientific details.

An appeal verdict at CAS could come quickly — even within just a few months — if the parties agree to cooperate. At least that's how it worked in another high-profile doping case in tennis involving Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova tested positive at the Australian Open in January 2016 for the newly-banned heart medication meldonium. She was banned for two years in June that year by the International Tennis Federation.

The Russian star appealed to CAS, had an appeal hearing in New York before three judges that September, and four weeks later got the verdict that cut her ban to 15 months.

The entire process for Sharapova with CAS took just four months — far shorter than most doping cases, which typically last about one year. The timeline can stall with the complexities of picking a judging panel, finding a hearing date and parties exchanging documents and evidence from expert witnesses.

During the Indian Wells hard-court event in March, Sinner tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that can be used for ophthalmological and dermatological use. It’s the same drug for which San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended by MLB in 2022.

Sinner tested positive again eight days later in an out-of-competition sample.

He was provisionally suspended twice by the tennis integrity body because of those test results, but he successfully appealed twice to an independent tribunal judge and was allowed to keep competing on tour.

Sinner said his test results happened because his fitness trainer purchased an over-the-counter spray called Trofodermin in Italy that contained Clostebol and gave it to Sinner’s physiotherapist to treat a cut on the physiotherapist’s finger. The physiotherapist then treated Sinner without wearing gloves.

The ITIA said it accepted Sinner’s explanation, after 10 interviews with the player and his entourage, and the independent panel agreed at a hearing on Aug. 15.

Sinner later announced that he had fired his two trainers.

While other players wondered whether Sinner was accorded special treatment, most believed he wasn’t trying to dope.

“You can understand why people are upset about it. In anti-doping, it sounds so ridiculous,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which wasn’t involved in the case. “But the science is such that, if the facts are actually proven out, it is actually plausible.”

If Sinner did lose in an appeal case to CAS, he would likely face a maximum ban of two years instead of four. Four-year bans are usually reserved for athletes unable to show their positive doping test was unintentional.

Sinner provided a clear explanation to an independent tribunal in London, which judges cases brought by the tennis integrity body.

Any possible ban would likely be backdated to March.

Neither WADA nor Nado Italia tend to announce appeals, so it would likely be up to CAS to communicate if there is a case brought before the sports court.

In addition, Giovanni Fontana, an Italian lawyer who has worked on about 100 doping cases over 30 years, recently told The Associated Press that Sinner's two trainers could risk a separate inquiry in Italy — pointing to the four-year suspension for a club doctor at an Italian soccer team in 2018 for administering Trofodermin to a player.

Dunbar reported from Geneva. AP National Writer Eddie Pells in Denver and AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich in New York contributed to this report.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, and Taylor Fritz, of the United States, listen to comments during the trophy ceremony after Sinner defeated Fritz in the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after defeating Taylor Fritz, of the United States, to win the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after defeating Taylor Fritz, of the United States, to win the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, kisses the championship trophy after defeating Taylor Fritz, of the United States, in the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A pack of Trofodermin, a medical product meant for treating cuts and scrapes, which contains the anabolic steroid Clostebol, a substance listed in the World Anti-Doping Association's banned substances, is seen on the counter of a pharmacy in Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Dampf)

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, holds the championship trophy after defeating Taylor Fritz, of the United States, in the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to use an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants, but said they must get a court hearing before they are taken from the United States.

In a bitterly divided decision, the court said the administration must give Venezuelans who it claims are gang members “reasonable time” to go to court.

But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.

The court’s action appears to bar the administration from immediately resuming the flights that last month carried hundreds of migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The flights came soon after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportations under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

The majority said nothing about those flights, which took off without providing the hearing the justices now say is necessary.

In dissent, the three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court “now rewards the government for its behavior.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined portions of the dissent.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it would be harder for people to challenge deportations individually, wherever they are being held, and noted that the administration has also said in another case before the court that it’s unable to return people who have been deported to the El Salvador prison by mistake.

“We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this,” she wrote.

The justices acted on the administration’s emergency appeal after the federal appeals court in Washington left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.

“For all the rhetoric of the dissents,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion, the high court order confirms “that the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal."

The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts. It's the second time in less than a week that a majority of conservative justices has handed Trump at least a partial victory in an emergency appeal after lower courts had blocked parts of his agenda.

Several other cases are pending, including over Trump's plan to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally.

Trump praised the court for its action Monday.

"The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

The original order blocking the deportations to El Salvador was issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public and as immigration authorities were shepherding hundreds of migrants to waiting airplanes.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said the “critical point" of the high court’s ruling was that people must be allowed due process to challenge their removal. "That is an important victory,” he said.

Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and also ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen. The judge held a hearing last week over whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a “ state secrets privilege ” and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.

Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States peer through windows of an Eastern Airlines plane upon arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)