BENGALURU: As Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek prepare for the new season after a year in which they fell foul of doping rules, positive drug tests due to contamination are a genuine fear for many of their fellow professionals.
The star duo spent small fortunes on quickly proving how the banned substances had entered their systems but other players, many of whom do not have huge financial resources at their disposal, are understandably jittery.
“A lot of the players I know are quite apprehensive,” former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu told British media this month.
“Everything we take, we’re aware of the situation and how easily things can be contaminated. There are certain supplements that I may want to take, but I can’t take them because they’re sold over the counter and not batch tested.”
Raducanu said it costs over $1,000 to batch test supplements.
Russian former world number five Andrey Rublev echoed Raducanu’s comments, saying he was “super afraid” to ingest anything he was not absolutely sure about.
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London-based academic Andrea Petroczi, who is involved in research on anti-doping, said surveys showed increasing concerns among elite athletes around the world about doping violations caused by contamination.
“(They) expressed fear and anxiety about unintentionally violating anti-doping rules that could have grave consequences on their reputation, careers and livelihoods,” Petroczi told Reuters via email.
Extraordinary precautions
Many athletes take precautions, Petroczi said, including meticulously checking medications, avoiding any unnecessary treatments, relying on third-party tested supplements and recording batch numbers of supplements and medicines.
Some go as far as maintaining logs and avoiding certain foods in specific countries, but they understand that even the highest levels of vigilance cannot completely eliminate the risk of contamination or environmental exposure.
“Importantly, it’s also crucial to acknowledge that the resources and strategies required for this level of vigilance aren’t universally accessible,” added Petroczi, a professor of public health at Kingston University.
“There is a clear ‘Global North’/‘Global South’ divide, with disparities in education, resources and support systems, leaving many athletes more vulnerable.”
Sinner was cleared of wrongdoing after he was able to satisfy doping authorities that trace amounts of the anabolic androgenic steroid clostebol in his system came from his physiotherapist during massages.
An appeal against that verdict by the World Anti-Doping Agency, however, means that Australian Open and U.S. Open champion Sinner still has a potential ban of up to two years hanging over his head.
Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after a positive test for hormone and metabolic modulator trimetazidine, which she said was the result of contamination of her sleep medication.
The world number two told Polish television station TVN24 that she had spent $70,000 on a lawyer and just over $15,000 on expert opinions in her defence of the case.
Lengthy delays
The speed with which Sinner and Swiatek’s cases were dealt with also cast a harsh spotlight on the anti-doping system after former world number one Simona Halep and Briton Tara Moore criticised officials for lengthy delays in their own cases.
The tennis anti-doping programme was previously overseen by the International Tennis Federation before the seven governing bodies of the sport formed the independent International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in 2021 after a comprehensive review.
Since the ITIA began handling anti-doping in addition to anti-corruption from 2022, Sinner and Swiatek’s cases are the highest profile players to be investigated by the agency, as both were world number ones when they failed tests.
The ITIA maintains that all doping cases are dealt with based on facts and evidence and not a player’s name, ranking or nationality but it has not been able to completely see off allegations of a two-tier system.
Being unable to access legal representation and advanced analytical testing would impact an athlete’s ability to fight a doping case, Petroczi added, and sports federations and anti-doping organisations had to address this disparity in resources.
“Efforts could include providing equitable access to expert support, ensuring transparency in processes, and exploring ways to mitigate the impact of resource gaps,” Petroczi said.
Unlike other elite athletes, tennis players are effectively self-employed and time out of the game to serve or fight a doping ban means a loss of income.
World number eight Rublev called for swifter rulings in cases of accidental contamination and some relaxation of rules.
“Of course, you want to have a clean sport,” he told the Tennis Majors website.
“But you also want (it to be) not so strict because then you make all the tennis players so afraid that even those situations (that are not you fault) cost you a year.
“It shouldn’t be like that.”