Novak Djokovic called for more transparency regarding doping suspensions in tennis this Sunday, December 29, saying that top-ranked players appeared to be treated differently from others.
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The Serbian agreed with Australian Nick Kyrgios, who said on Saturday that the current integrity in their sport was a ” horror “. The two players were speaking about the cases of anti-doping rule violations which concerned the world number ones, the Italian Jannik Sinner and the Polish Iga Swiatek, during the year 2024.
Twice in March 2024, minute traces of clostebol (steroid) were found in Sinner’s body, who was briefly suspended each time. But the Italian pleaded ignorance and above all contamination, and was completely cleared by the International Agency for Integrity in Tennis (ITIA) before the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) filed the appeal .
A few months after Sinner, the Polish Iga Swiatek, current number two, was also suspended for a month for doping after the discovery in August of trimetazidine in her body. Here too, the ITIA accepted the contamination excuse.
Also readTennis: WADA relaunches Jannik Sinner’s doping case and requests its suspension
“ I wonder about how the system works »
According to Djokovic, who will play doubles with Kyrgios at the Brisbane tournament this week, top players like Sinner and Swiatek are treated differently from those who occupy a lower position in the ATP and WTA rankings. “ I think Nick has valid points regarding transparency and inconsistency of protocols and case-by-case comparisons “, underlined the Serb. “ We have players who have been waiting for over a year for their cases to be resolved “, he added.
If Djokovic said he believed Sinner when he claimed to have tested positive for clostebol following contamination by his physiotherapist, he also claimed to have “ was very frustrated, like most other players, to have been kept in the dark for five months “. Sinner « received the news (of the positive tests) in April and the announcement was not made until August, just before the US Open. The ATP hasn’t really spoken in depth about why they kept this matter out of the public eye “, he lamented.
“ Then we had the case of Halep and that of Swiatek on the WTA circuit and it is not a good image for our sport », he explained, in reference to the case of the Romanian, former world number one, initially suspended for four years in 2022 due to a positive test and an irregularity in her biological passport, sanction reduced to nine month in March 2024. “ I’m just wondering how the system works “added Djokovic. “ Why aren’t some players treated the same as others? ? Maybe there are filing reasons behind this, or maybe others have more financial backing behind them or stronger legal teams. »