![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/98ac7dd3-nick-kyrgios.jpg\"\/)
Nick Kyrgios said on Instagram that he took \u2018full responsibility\u2019 for testing positive for cocaine. (EPA Images pic)
\nLONDON: Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios said on Wednesday that he had made \u201ca huge mistake\u201d after testing positive for cocaine.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old, who reached the final at Wimbledon in 2022, failed a doping test during an ATP event in Mallorca, Spain, on June 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 17 July 2026, a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory confirmed the presence of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine,\u201d the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios, whose undoubted talent has been overshadowed by a suspect temperament and injuries, wrote on Instagram that he took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a huge mistake,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbove 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
Boasting a big serve and booming ground strokes, Kyrgios has won seven singles titles on the ATP Tour and rose to a high of 13 in the world in 2016.<\/p>\n
His finest performance was on the grass at Wimbledon in 2022, when he reached the championship match, losing in four sets to Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
Despite his natural talents that is as good as it got, with a series of injuries taking their toll.<\/p>\n
He is now ranked 919 and has barely played in singles tennis in recent years.<\/p>\n
In January, he admitted he would never be the player that he once was.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios is one of the few players to have recorded tour-level wins over the \u201cBig Four\u201d of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.<\/p>\n
But the success on court came with huge problems off it, including severe injuries to his right elbow, left wrist, hip, knees, shoulders and collarbone.<\/p>\n
He has had numberous surgeries, the most serious a complete reconstruction of his right wrist in 2024.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he said that the injuries had taken \u201ca huge toll on me both physically and mentally\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of that excuses what I did,\u201d he said of his failed test.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever the good news is that this has given me a wake-up call.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I\u2019ll do the work and come back better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ITIA said that the suspension had been in place since August 4.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cWhile suspended Kyrgios is not allowed to play in, coach at, or attend any events organised or sanctioned by World Tennis, WTA, ATP, the Grand Slams, or any national association.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Kyrgios said on Instagram that he took \u2018full responsibility\u2019 for testing positive for cocaine. (EPA Images pic)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19937,19938,19916,19939,19940,10227,285],"class_list":["post-53421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wimbledon","tag-huge-mistake","tag-admits","tag-cocaine","tag-failing","tag-kyrgios","tag-test","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}