- Updated
- Sport
- Tennis
- Drugs in sport
‘Our sport is cooked’: Kyrgios takes a swipe after tennis rocked by doping cases
By Scott Spits
Nick Kyrgios has taken a fresh swipe at tennis officialdom, declaring the sport is “cooked” after it was rocked by a second doping case this year involving one of the top players.
Iga Swiatek, the world No.2 and three-time Roland-Garros defending champion, has accepted a one-month ban after testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a banned substance. But the World Anti-Doping Agency flagged it could yet challenge the sanction imposed on the star Polish player.
Outspoken: Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.Credit: Getty Images
Swiatek’s case followed the predicament for men’s world No.1 Jannik Sinner, who tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but was not banned in an International Tennis Integrity Agency decision. The ITIA accepted the Italian’s argument that the drug clostebol entered his system through a massage given by a support staffer.
The ITIA announced on Thursday that five-time major champion Swiatek had eight days of a one-month suspension left to serve. The 23-year-old failed an out-of-competition drug test in August.
Swiatek’s case prompted Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up, to post “OUR SPORT IS COOKED” on social media platform X.
The 29-year-old was responding to a post from Zimbabwean tennis player and world No. 337 Benjamin Lock, who wrote: “1 month ban. It’s not even April fools day. Don’t play with us like that. Two number 1s in the world failing drug tests in the same year is wild.”
In response to another post on X seeking “bold” predictions for the 2025 tennis year, Kyrgios replied: “That our world number 1’s won’t fail drug tests.”
Separately, the Australian posted: “The excuse that we can all use is that we didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. Professionals at the highest level of sport can now just say ‘we didn’t know’.”
Simona Halep, the former Wimbledon and Roland-Garros champion, expressed dismay at the way Swiatek’s doping case was handled compared to her own.
Halep, a 33-year-old Romanian who initially received a four-year ban for doping, said there had been huge differences in how their cases were treated by tennis authorities.
“I sit and try to understand but it is really impossible for me to understand something like this,” Halep posted on Friday on her Instagram account. “I sit and wonder, ‘Why such a big difference in treatment and judgment?’
“I can’t find, and I don’t think there can be, a logical answer. It can only be bad will on the part of ITIA, the organisation that did absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence.”
The ITIA accepted Swiatek’s explanation that the result was unintentional and was caused by the contamination of a non-prescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.
Halep, who won at Roland-Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, received a four-year suspension after testing positive for the banned drug Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open.
Her suspension was reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to nine months after CAS accepted her explanation of a contaminated supplement. But she missed 18 months of playing.
“I have always believed in good, I have believed in the fairness of this sport, I have believed in kindness,” Halep wrote on Instagram. “The injustice that was done to me was painful, is painful and maybe will always be painful. How is it possible that in identical cases that happened at about the same time (of the season), ITIA has completely different approaches, to my detriment?”
WADA, which is appealing Sinner’s “no fault or negligence” ruling to CAS and is seeking a ban of between one and two years for the Italian, confirmed it was closely examining the published findings for Swiatek.
“As it does with all cases, WADA will carefully review this decision and reserves the right to take an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as appropriate,” said a WADA spokesperson.
Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalov, ranked No. 56, posted a sarcastic-sounding “1 month ban eh” on his X account.
The Swiatek and Sinner cases have led to claims by some observers of a two-tier system, with critics arguing it afforded Sinner protection because of his status as a leading player.
Earlier this month, ATP Tour chairman Andrea Gaudenzi acknowledged there “could have been better communication” in explaining the rules involved in Sinner’s doping case, but rejected allegations of double standards.
Sinner’s drugs ban reprieve has provoked a backlash from his fellow professionals, with Kyrgios branding it “ridiculous”.
“Ridiculous – whether it was accidental or planned. You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance… you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream…. Yeah nice,” Kyrgios posted on X in August.
The Switzerland-based CAS is expected to make a final ruling on Sinner in 2025. The Italian will try to defend his Australian Open title in January.
With AP
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.