Novak Djokovic, on Sunday, referred to as for extra transparency round doping suspensions in tennis, saying high-ranked gamers gave the impression to be handled in another way from others.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion agreed with Australian Nick Kyrgios, who on Saturday stated integrity within the sport was “terrible”.
They have been talking within the wake of doping violations by world primary Italian Jannik Sinner and Poland’s Iga Swiatek, throughout 2024.
The 37-year-old Djokovic, who will play doubles with Kyrgios on the Brisbane Worldwide this week, stated there wanted to be far larger transparency from the game’s governing our bodies round doping violations.
He additionally stated that it appeared that high gamers comparable to Sinner and Swiatek have been being handled in another way from these additional down the rankings.
“I feel Nick has some truthful factors in the case of transparency and inconsistency with protocols and case-to-case comparables,” the Serbian stated.
“We’ve got some gamers who’ve been ready for over a yr for his or her case to be resolved, so the difficulty is the inconsistency and the transparency.”
Whereas Djokovic stated he believed Sinner when he stated he examined constructive for the steroid clostebol on account of contamination from his physiotherapist, he asserted that the gamers had been “saved at nighttime” all through the entire course of.
“I’ve been actually annoyed, as have many of the different gamers, that we’ve been saved at nighttime for 5 months,” Djokovic stated.
“He (Sinner) acquired the information (of the constructive assessments) in April, and the announcement was not till August, simply earlier than the US Open.
“The ATP has probably not talked in depth about why they saved that case away from the general public.
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“Then we had (Simona) Halep’s case and Swiatek’s case on the WTA Tour, and it’s not a very good search for our sport.”
Sinner twice examined constructive for clostebol in March. Nonetheless, the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) accepted his argument that the steroid entered his system on account of contamination and opted to not droop him.
The World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) subsequently appealed the choice on the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport, with a verdict pending.
Swiatek examined constructive for the guts treatment trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition pattern in August when she was ranked primary.
As with Sinner, the ITIA accepted that Swiatek’s violation was not intentional, and she or he acquired solely a one-month ban.
In distinction, Halep was handed a four-year ban by the ITIA in 2022 after testing constructive for roxadustat.
She argued it was the results of a tainted complement and efficiently appealed to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport, which diminished her suspension to 9 months, and she or he returned to the court docket in March.
“I’m simply questioning the best way the system works,” stated Djokovic.
“Why are sure gamers not handled the identical as different gamers? Perhaps there are some rating causes behind it, or possibly others have extra monetary backing behind them or stronger authorized groups.”