Nick Kyrgios said he has made \u201ca huge mistake\u201d after failing a doping test. The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced on Wednesday that the controversial Australian player has been provisionally suspended.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios gave a sample at an ATP tournament in Mallorca in June that tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.<\/p>\n
Writing on Instagram, Kyrgios said: \u201cI wanted you to hear this from me first. I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it. I\u2019m sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me. Above all, I\u2019m sorry to the kids who follow me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the example this sets and I\u2019m deeply disappointed in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cocaine is banned in competition and former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended since August 4th.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old is prohibited from playing and attending tournaments pending the outcome of a tribunal that will assess his case.<\/p>\n
His first-round loss to fellow Australian Adam Walton in Mallorca was his last competitive singles outing and one of only four singles matches he has played this season.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios\u2019s career has been blighted by knee and wrist problems since his run to the Wimbledon showpiece in 2022 and his ranking has slipped to 919 in the world.<\/p>\n
He said he would not make \u201cexcuses\u201d for the positive test but cited the toll of his physical issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy body hasn\u2019t been able to do what my mind expects it do, and coming to terms with being near the end of my career has been harder than I ever imagined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt times I\u2019ve felt hopeless and alone. However, the good news is that this has given me a wake-up call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios added he will take a 28-day break from social media to focus on \u201cgetting myself right\u201d, concluding: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I\u2019ll come back better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, who last played competitively at Wimbledon earlier this summer in the men\u2019s doubles, has earned a reputation as the \u2018bad boy\u2019 of this generation of players.<\/p>\n
He has been fined numerous times for his behaviour on court, including swearing, breaking rackets and abuse towards officials, while in 2023 he pleaded guilty in court in Canberra to pushing over a former girlfriend.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, meanwhile, was hugely critical of the handling of previous high-profile doping cases involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, describing the pair testing positive for banned substances as \u201cdisgusting for our sport\u201d.<\/p>\n
Having initially been cleared of blame following two positive tests for a steroid, Sinner eventually served a three-month ban, while Swiatek was suspended for one month after an investigation concluded she had unknowingly taken contaminated medication.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios could face a ban of up to four years but, if he can prove he took the drug out of competition, the maximum sanction he would face is three months, which could be reduced to as little as one month if he agrees to an approved treatment plan.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s Dan Evans was banned for a year for taking cocaine out of competition in 2017 but the rules changed in 2021, with the penalties reduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios said he has made \u201ca huge mistake\u201d after failing a doping test. The International Tennis Integrity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[237372,6285,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-598017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fbl","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}