SYDNEY, Sept 4 \u2014 Australia\u2019s Nick Kyrgios was cleared today to return to tennis after accepting a one-month ban for using cocaine and entering a treatment programme.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old, who reached the final at Wimbledon in 2022, failed a doping test during an ATP event in Mallorca on June 22.<\/p>\n
He was provisionally suspended on August 4 by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), admitting he made \u201ca huge mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement today, the doping agency said Kyrgios had explained his use of the drug occurred socially during a night out before he was due to play in Mallorca.<\/p>\n
The ITIA consulted an independent scientific expert at a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory, who found his explanation was consistent with the level of cocaine found in his sample.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, the ITIA accepted that Kyrgios\u2019 use of cocaine was outside of competition,\u201d the ITIA said.<\/p>\n
Under WADA rules, the default suspension for a breach of this type is three months, which can be reduced to one month if an individual commits to a treatment programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyrgios has entered into a treatment programme,\u201d the ITIA added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, the player\u2019s suspension will end on September 3, 2026, subject to completion of the programme. Prize-money and ranking points from the Mallorca event will be forfeited.\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. He is now ranked 918.<\/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 has had numerous surgeries, the most serious a complete reconstruction of his right wrist in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Australian last played as a wildcard entry in the men\u2019s doubles at Wimbledon in July this year, when he and partner Alexander Bublik lost in the first round.<\/p>\n
Kyrgios was contrite when the news of his cocaine use emerged last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine,\u201d he posted on Instagram at the time. \u201cI made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\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 \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY, Sept 4 \u2014 Australia\u2019s Nick Kyrgios was cleared today to return to tennis after accepting a one-month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[410,393,4733,1210,28,1684,19918],"class_list":["post-64925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-atp-tour","tag-international-tennis-integrity-agency","tag-nick-kyrgios","tag-tennis","tag-wimbledon-2022","tag-world-anti-doping-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64925","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=64925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}