As nearly every tennis fan knows, Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner both failed drug tests in 2024, and only Swiatek was truly disciplined. She served a one-month suspension that caused her to miss three tournaments and probably cost her the year-end No. 1 ranking. Still, some think a positive test should be worth a much longer ban.
Former ATP No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov believes Swiatek, Sinner, or anyone else who tests positive for a banned substance, whether they did so intentionally or not, should be banned for life. No excuses. They need to be done, says the Russian.
Former top-five WTA player Genie Bouchard might agree with Kafelnikov. She certainly agreed with Nick Kyrgios when he recently tweeted about how tennis players testing positive lately, and this includes Swiatek and Sinner, appear to have a knee-jerk reaction that says they did not know they had ingested or been near a substance that had been banned.
Genie Bouchard agrees with Nick Kyrgios on Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek situations
Whether right or wrong, the excuse is an easy one to make. Maybe some public relations persons need to be more involved in what the players are giving as a response to the hate they are getting about testing positive.
Kyrgios had tweeted about the news of Swiatek’s test by saying, “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.’
Bouchard replied to Kyrgios’ tweet simply, “Guess so.” Neither player is wrong because eventually, and maybe quite soon, a simple dismissal of a positive test by saying, “I didn’t know!,” won’t be good enough. Moreover, it won’t be believable.
