Tennis greats speak out over ‘sloppy’ handling of doping cases
By Marc McGowan
Former Australian Open boss and grand slam doubles champion Paul McNamee believes the “sloppy” handling of doping cases by tennis has cast a shadow over the sport ahead of the Australian summer.
McNamee’s comments follow last week’s revelation that five-time major winner Iga Swiatek tested positive for a banned substance, only months after men’s world No.1 Jannik Sinner did the same.
Australians John Millman and Nicole Bradtke – who reached the 2018 US Open quarter-finals and the 1988 Roland-Garros semi-finals, respectively – also called for greater consistency in how players were treated in cases involving a positive test.
Sinner and Swiatek both appealed their provisional suspension inside 10 days of being notified, and it was not made public because they were successful, the International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed. In both cases, authorities accepted that they had unintentionally ingested or absorbed the substance, in Sinner’s case through a massage and in Swiatek’s through a dose of melatonin.
They each learnt their fate quickly, with Swiatek testing positive in August, then secretly serving a provisional suspension – missing three tournaments for “personal reasons” – before receiving a one-month ban that became public last week and will not stop her competing at Melbourne Park.
Jannik Sinner has been allowed to keep playing.Credit: AP
“Obviously, they’ve got rules and regulations, and his [Sinner’s] team played it [well] from the beginning, so they did nothing wrong,” McNamee told this masthead.
“I just think earlier transparency would have been appropriate. I want to see these cases get resolved sooner rather than later, but it has put a bit of a shadow around things, I think.”
One of those is British player Tara Moore, whose name was finally cleared after a 19-month battle in which a panel eventually ruled contaminated meat was the cause of her positive result.
Iga Swiatek makes a statement about her doping ban on Instagram.Credit: Instagram
Dual grand slam champion Simona Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and later received a four-year ban, which was reduced to nine months last March after she appealed at the court of arbitration for sport.
Halep, who protested her innocence from the moment she tested positive to banned substance roxadustat, is among those frustrated at how quickly Swiatek’s case was resolved compared with her own.
Millman said: “It hasn’t been ideal, and I think what we’re crying out for is consistency.
“That’s probably where we’ve gone astray a little bit. I’ve made it quite clear, having had a personal relationship with Jannik, and reading the case; I actually believe well and truly [his story], 100 per cent. I’m adamant with that.
“The thing that I do probably have a bit more of a problem with, in general, is that I think the ATP, WTA and all the doping organisations should be streamlining that process a little bit more [for everyone].”
Millman said players had to be “meticulous” and check “absolutely everything” they put in their body, recalling how he was unable to use a nasal spray at one stage during his career because it contained a banned substance.
Bradtke echoed those sentiments, saying players must consider taking greater control of everything from how they treat their injuries to the supplements they take.
“It just goes to show that if you get a cut, you’ve got to look after it yourself,” she said.
“You’ve got to do your own drinks – no one else can do it. You’ve got to take ownership with what’s going into your body, and if you’re silly enough to get your trainers to do whatever, then you have to suffer the consequences. That’s how I see it.”
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