He couldn't not give his opinion on the subject. Even less so in Brisbane where, the day before, Nick Kyrgios had rushed to the sidelines by expressing his disgust at the doping cases which affected Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek and the way in which, in his eyes, the tennis governing bodies have treated these two cases lightly and clemency. Novak Djokovic therefore called on Sunday for more transparency regarding suspensions for doping in tennis, saying that the highest ranked players seemed to be treated differently from the others.
“I think Nick (Kyrgios) has valid points regarding transparency and inconsistency of protocols and case-by-case comparisons“, estimated the Serbian champion. “We have players who have been waiting for over a year for their cases to be resolved“, he recalled. The WADA appeal in Sinner's case will not in fact be decided for several weeks at best. For a case already dating back to last March.
Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios on the same wavelength.
Credit: Getty Images
I'm just wondering how the system works
Novak Djokovic tries to criticize the system without falling on individualities. Thus, he repeated believing Jannik Sinner when he put forward the thesis of clostebol contamination by his physiotherapist. But he didn't appreciate learning all this months later. “He (Sinner, Editor's note) received the news of the positive tests in April and the announcement was only made in 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“, lamented the ten-time winner of the Australian Open.
“Then we had the case of (Simona) Halep and that of Swiatek on the WTA circuit and it is not a good image for our sport“, he added, in reference to the case of the Romanian, former world number 1, initially suspended for four years in 2022 after a positive test and an irregularity in her biological passport, sanction reduced to nine months in March 2024.
Like many, Djokovic therefore calls for more clarity, but also consistency. Why are so many things kept secret and why are the treatments so different from one case to another? “I'm just wondering how the system worksadmits the record holder for Grand Slam victories. Why are some players not 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“.
