One month, not four years
Nick Kyrgios can enter a tournament again from today. The International Tennis Integrity Agency has closed its case against the Australian with a one-month suspension, the shortest sanction available under the World Anti-Doping Agency code for the offence he committed.
Kyrgios tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, around an ATP 250 event in Mallorca on 22 June. A WADA-accredited laboratory confirmed the finding on 17 July. He was provisionally suspended from 4 August and had been facing anything between a three-month baseline ban and four years out of the sport.
Try it for $0.99.
How the sanction shrank
The size of the reduction turned on two findings. In his interview with ITIA investigators, Kyrgios said he had used cocaine socially on a night out days before he was due to play in Mallorca. An independent scientific expert at a WADA-accredited laboratory told the agency the concentration found in the sample was consistent with that account, and the use was accepted as having happened out of competition.
That classification carries a default three-month suspension under the code. It drops to one month if the player commits to a treatment programme approved by the ITIA, which Kyrgios agreed to do. He also forfeited the 6,570 euros he earned in Mallorca, where he lost his opening match to fellow Australian Adam Walton, and he chose not to appeal the provisional suspension.
“I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it,” he wrote on Instagram last month.
A return with very little behind it
The ban has cost Kyrgios less court time than it would have cost almost anyone else in the top 100. He has played four official ATP singles matches this year. His most recent appearance of any kind was a first-round men’s doubles loss at Wimbledon on 2 July alongside Alexander Bublik.
He is 31 and peaked at world number 13. The 2022 Wimbledon final remains the high point of a career that knee and wrist problems have steadily hollowed out since, and he has spoken openly about his body no longer doing what his mind asks of it.
The suspension barred him from playing, coaching or attending any event sanctioned by the men’s and women’s tours worldwide, along with national-level tournaments in Australia. That restriction lifts today, which leaves the practical question of where a player with four matches in nine months goes next.
Discover the rest of our Tennis news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply