Former world number one tennis player Andy Roddick has targeted Nick Kyrgios after the Australian agitator sharply criticised tennis officials for not banning Italian star Jannik Sinner after two positive doping tests.

Kyrgios publicly criticized a tribunal’s decision to acquit Jannik Sinner of doping charges after the world number one was tested twice.

The International Tennis Integrity Board reported that Sinner’s positive tests occurred in March.

Jannik Sinner’s positive doping tests, first on March 10 and again eight days later, led to provisional suspensions. However, after urgent appeals from his team, he continued to compete.

Although Sinner maintains his innocence, he will have to forego $325,000 in prize money and 400 ranking points in Indian Wells because the ITIA disqualified his results due to traces of clostebol found in his body.

The court accepted Sinner’s explanation that the anabolic steroid Clostebol had accidentally entered his body through his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi, who had treated his skin with a medical spray and then massaged Sinner.

Naldi was unaware that the spray contained clostebol, a muscle-building steroid, and did not wear gloves during the massages.

Polarizing Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has sharply criticized the tennis world for not suspending Jannik Sinner after two positive doping tests.

Sinner’s team successfully argued that the banned substance was transmitted in small doses during a massage and was not ingested intentionally.

However, Kyrgios does not accept this explanation and has repeatedly sharply criticized Sinner and the ITIA for the decision. He said he should be banned for two years.

“Ridiculous – whether it was accidental or planned,” Kyrgios wrote on the social media platform X.

“You are tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… You should be out for two years. Your performance has been enhanced.”

His comments polarized his followers: some agreed with Kyrgios, others accused him of jealousy because Sinner was now with his former partner Anna Kalinskaya.

Now former world number one Andy Roddick has also come under Kyrgios’s scrutiny after he publicly defended Sinner.

“You get tested at every Grand Slam tournament, so there’s no chance he wasn’t clean at the Australian Open if he was tested so many times,” Roddick said on his podcast.

“The amount in his body is one billionth of a gram, which is 58,000 times less than a grain of salt. This is completely consistent with the explanation.”

Former world number one Andy Roddick defended Sinner and also took aim at Kyrgios

This prompted Kyrgios to comment: “Do you realise how quickly that stuff disappears from your body? Cream, gummy bears, literally hours. Ridiculous statement.”

One X-user replied to Kyrgios: “How do you know? Through experience? Lmao you’re ridiculous bro – give it up.”

“Research. Idiot,” countered the Australian.

At this point, Roddick had no choice but to provoke the bear.

“Idiot is a word,” he posted.

“Thank you for the tip. Could you also explain what ‘banned at any time’ means?” Kyrgios asked in return.

Sinner will be eligible to compete in the upcoming US Open, where he will be one of the leading contenders.

Former women’s champion Chris Evert also defended Sinner, but said the Italian champion needed to look for better protective measures in his own team.

“I think tennis has done a good job,” said the 18-time major winner.

“My only question is about the steroid clostebol. Yes, it was available over the counter in Italy. You can buy it over the counter, so it’s just like buying aspirin over the counter.”

“Nevertheless, these players have teams that investigate exactly what is contained in these substances.

“And I would have thought that, especially since the Maria Sharapova scandal (her two-year doping ban was reduced to 15 months after her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport), the teams would know better what to look out for with the substances their players take.

“It’s available over the counter, but it still contains a steroid that’s banned. You can’t take that steroid and then it turns out it’s a spray.