The tennis world has been rocked with the announcement that Iga Swiatek was provisionally suspended for 30 days for testing positive for a banned substance, Trimetazidine in an out of competition sample. Swiatek is the second top name in the sport after Jannik Sinner to be accused of doping. It made mercurial Australian star Nick Kyrgios come up with a sarcastic tweet recently.
A tennis influencer named Olly, who has more than 100,000 followers on X, had an engagement tweet for his followers. He asked them about putting up their respective ‘bold predictions’ for the 2025 season with Sinner’s picture in it.
However, the post got to Kyrgios’ feed despite the Aussie not following the influencer on the social media platform. Kyrgios replied that the best tennis players in the world won’t be accused of doping.
That our world number 1’s won’t fail drug tests
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) November 28, 2024
For a large part of the 2024 season, Swiatek was the women’s World No.1. On the other hand, Sinner remains the best in the men’s game after two Grand Slam wins and many other titles.
When it comes to Kyrgios, he has spoken out candidly against doping. A few months ago, he ridiculed Sinner for claiming that he was unaware of being administered a banned substance, Clostebol via the massage cream his masseuse used on him.
Perhaps he thought of that and compared Sinner’s case with the current Swiatek one. In her official statement, Swiatek also said that she had no clue as to how the drug came into her sample and was actually contaminated.
Kyrgios has now called them both out for providing ‘excuses’ and is worried that players accused of doping will now follow their lead. In order to get away with it, they might all say ‘Simply don’t know’.
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”
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) November 29, 2024
Kyrgios’ tweets on Swiatek and Sinner reflect a widespread opinion that tennis players cannot be trusted when it comes to doping and whether governing bodies are shielding them when they are likely to be guilty.
Is Kyrgios justified in his criticism? Swiatek and Sinner gain a bad rep in these controversies
Like many, Kyrgios is shocked at the brazenness of it all. He has advocated a 2-year ban for Sinner, something which the WADA has appealed for, in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. The Australian believes that ‘Tennis is cooked’ when such big names get caught in the same year for a similar offence.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), while coming out with their verdict on Sinner, revealed that he was provisionally suspended in the month of April. The days were such that it allowed Sinner to participate in the Monte Carlo and the Madrid Masters tournaments respectively.
But this truth came out too late and it went against Sinner, who is expected to uphold his own integrity as well as of the sport. Why was such information classified and hidden from the media and public after all? Has Sinner become bigger than the sport?
The same questions now apply to Swiatek. The Pole was allowed to play in the Billie Jean King Cup 2024 recently for her country. This was when apparently, she was suspended by the ITIA for 30 days. However, when asked about not participating in two tournaments in the Asian swing before her verdict, Swiatek cited ‘personal reasons’ for the same.
It is only now that she has come out with a statement of her own, with the verdict being in her favor. Are governing bodies and authorities compromised as well and in favor of big names, who have the resources to fight their cases? Tennis is in a hole at the moment and a lot needs to be done to come out of it.
