Soon to make his return to tennis at the Brisbane International, Nick Kyrgios has not held back with his words in referring to doping-related charges against both Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, labelling breaches of the sport’s anti-doping program as “disgusting for our sport.”
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) levelled charges against world No.1 Sinner and former world No.1 Iga Swiatek. Sinner tested positive on two occasions for an anabolic steroid in March, but was able to avoid a ban because the ITIA concluded he was not to blame. Swiatek also accepted a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine.
“Two world No.1s both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It’s a horrible look,” Kyrgios said at his Brisbane International press conference on Saturday. “Tennis integrity right now, and everyone knows it but no one wants to speak about it, it’s awful.”
Kyrgios, 29, has not played tournament tennis since June 2023 due to wrist and knee injuries. He was asked about his motivations for speaking out on the Sinner and Swiatek situations.
“Someone like me … I would never even in my entire life ever try and dope in this sport,” he said. “Especially going through an injury like I went through, obviously there are things out there that could speed up healing, help me get back to prime level, help my recovery.
“There’s so many things out there that are prohibited in our sport that I could have been doing to get me back quicker … (but) that’s just not who I am. I’m always against that.”
Sinner had successfully argued that his physiotherapist had accidentally contaminated him during treatment with clostebol which had transferred from a cut on his own hand, which led to ITIA giving the Italian player a pardon from the ban. Kyrgios raised questions over what happened next.
“I (pay) my team hundreds and thousands of dollars to be the professionals they are, to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kyrgios said. “So they knew it happened. Why did they wait five to six months to do anything about it? He kept his team for five months … that doesn’t make sense.”
Kyrgios, on his return to tennis in Brisbane, will take on 21-year-old Giovanni Perricard of France in the first round. Kyrgios is also entered in the Australian Open beginning January 12 making it his first Grand Slam singles appearance in more than two years.
With AP inputs.
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