Melbourne, Australia (AP) – This is a subject that followed tennis in 2024 and is always a subject of discussion like the 2025 Grand Chelem season Open to the Australian Open Sunday (Saturday east): doping and cases involving Jannik sinner – which is still not resolved – and IGA SwiTEK.
The two spent a large part of last year at n ° 1, and the sinner will always hold this place in the ATP ranking when he walks on the field of Melbourne Park to start the defense of his championship, one of the two major trophies he won last year.
Swiatek, five -time slam champion and the woman leading the WTA ranking most of the last three seasons, is n ° 2 behind Aryna Sabalenka, who will continue her third consecutive title in Australia.
“Obviously, there will be negative comments,” said Swiatek. “You are not going to avoid this.”
Most players prefer to remain silent when questioned in cases. But there are those who were happy to weigh, notably the major champion 24 to 24 Novak Djokovic, which raised questions about the question of whether the sinner and Swiatek were dealt with in the same way as the other players confronted with similar circumstances and why their situations were held under the Wraps for months.
“I sit and wonder:” Why such a big difference in treatment and judgment? ” »» Double major champion of Simona Halep Reaction to the Punishment of Swiatek. “I can’t find it, and I don’t think there can be a logical response.”
Halep was initially prohibited for four years after being tested positive for the drug troxadustat prohibited at the US Open 2022, then had this penalty reduced to nine months on appeal – Although it has already been out of the tour longer than that. She was supposed to compete in Melbourne Park for the first time in three years, but withdrew from the qualifications because of the pain in the knee and the shoulders.
No one has been stronger on the subject in recent times than Nick KyrgiosThe Wimbledon 2022 finalist who has missed almost the last two seasons due to injuries. He regularly commented, in real life and online, even taking a blow (which, according to him, was jokingly) to Cruz Hewitt after the 16 -year -old son of the Australian Cup Davis, Lleyton, published a photo with Sinner of a training session.
“It was managed horribly in our sport. Two world n ° 1, both made for doping, is disgusting for our sport,” Kyrgios said at Brisbane International, the first event of his return. “It’s a horrible look.”
Where are things to find with the positive tests of Sinner?
The sinner was the dominant player In male tennis last year, and there are few reasons to think that it will not continue. In 2024, he went 73-6 with eight titles, including the US Open, and led Italy to the Davis Cup. He headed for the Australian Open on a sequence of 14 consecutive victories.
Staying on all of this is as follows: two positive tests for a trace of an anabolic steroid in March were made public in August; The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has determined that it should not be suspended because the exhibition Closed was considered accidental – the result of a massage of a coach who used the substance after cutting his own finger.
THE World Anti -Doping Agency was not fully convinced of the exemption and thinks that a ban from one to two years would be appropriate. His call, lodged in September, is still pending and a final determination is expected after the Australian open ends.
“It’s a bit in (my) head,” said Sinner, adding that he is convinced that everything will go in his sense.
What happened with the missing doping test of Swiatek?
Overwhelm accepted a suspension of a month at the end of November after being tested positive for a prohibited heart medication known as TMZ. She failed an out -of -competition test in August, and ITIA accepted her explanation that she was caused by contamination of a prescription drug, melatonin, which Swiatek took for time difference and sleep problems.
She missed three tournaments – although the real reason was not revealed at the time – and finished serving her punishment after the end of the season.
“This whole process was sometimes quite abstract and difficult to understand,” said Swiatek, surely speaking for many observers.
This is why, perhaps, Dutch captain Paul Haarhuis said what he had done after his team lost against Italy of Sinner in the Davis Cup final.
“Jannik, in my opinion, is an incredibly nice (and) great player guy,” said Haarhuis, “but we (could) never know what happened.”
Are there other notable cases in tennis?
While Sinner and Swiatek will participate in Melbourne, another player involved in a recent ITIA case will not be: Max PurcellWho won male double titles at the US Open in September and Wimbledon in 2022 and was twice a finalist at Australian Open.
However, Purcell was not tested positive. Instead, he accepted a provisional suspension for, as he described, after having “unconsciously received an IV infusion of vitamins above the eligible limit”.
“I have no good words for that,” said Jordan Thompson, Purcell double partner in New York last year. “It’s a joke.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the writer AP Tennis since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More tennis AP: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
