What happened after Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek’s failed drug tests? Full explainer
Tennis was rocked by some high-profile failed drug tests during 2024, with Grand Slam champions Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek among the big names who recorded positive tests.
Two-time Grand Slam doubles winner Max Purcell has also been provisionally suspended for violating tennis’ anti-doping rules, with the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirming his positive test two days before Christmas.
With so much discussion around the anti-doping rules in the sport, Tennis365 sat down with ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse to look back on an eventual 2024 and in this extract from our exclusive interview, we look at how players are asked to take part in a doping control test and what happens if a positive result is returned.
How are players informed that they are required to offer a urine sample for a doping test?
Karen Moorhouse: There are two different criteria here. In competition testing and out of competition. In a tournament, you will be notified after your match that you have been selected for a doping test. Then your chaperone is with you from that point and you are not left alone. There isn’t a cut-off point in terms of time for the player to provide a sample as it can be difficult if you are playing in hot conditions and have just finished a long match.
If a player is tested, does that mean he or she will not be tested again for a certain period of time?
Karen Moorhouse: No. One of the key principles of the anti-doping programme is you can be tested anywhere and at any time. Clearly, we don’t want to be a pattern to this programme as that would encourage players who wish to find a way around it to exploit that. Some of our testing is intelligence-driven, so if we have players who are high-risk, that would be a factor. There is also a random selection process and then for those players within our international registered testing pool, we carry out a a minimum of tests on those players each year. So broadly, the top 100 men and women singles players and the top 50 doubles players are tested more than others.
How does out-of-competition testing work?
Karen Moorhouse: Each player within our international registered testing pool is required to provide an hour each day where they say they are going to be. We will carry out a certain number of tests in that slot each year and we also have the ability to carry out tests whenever we want. A good doping programme is seeking to be primarily intelligence-driven and beyond that, we want it to be unpredictable so no pattern of testing can be identified.
What happens if players are not available for their test?
Karen Moorhouse: The WADA code that applies across all sports states that if an athlete fails to fill out where they are going to be for a doping test or they are not where they said they are going to be on three occasions, that is a breach of the rules and you will be charged. We have worked really hard with the tours to make sure that players understand what they need to do and that they have a system in place to update their whereabouts. Whatever we can do to help and support and to make sure players don’t have inadvertent breaches is an important part of the programme.
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After a positive test is recorded, how can players respond?
Karen Moorhouse: The nature of the explanation they provide and how quickly they respond will determine which part of our process and rules apply and how they will be applied. If an athlete says they believe the positive test is due to a contaminated product and that they have identified that product. The next step would see us trying to get hold of any remaining part of that product and, ideally, some product from the same batch which is sealed that we can send to a WADA-approved lab for testing. In addition, we might want to speak to the player to understand the circumstances around why they were taking the product as that would allow us to assess the level of fault they may have. The key part here is we want to give the players every opportunity to explain the outcome and we want to help and support them to whatever extent we can.
Would you say the ITIA’s primary role is to ensure players understand their responsibility?
Karen Moorhouse: Absolutely. We want to educate players first. If we can get players and their support staff to put in place the right steps to avoid breaches in the rules, then that’s a really good outcome. Then when we have positive tests, we want to get to the facts and it is our job to apply the rules and reach the right and fair outcome within the anti-doping code.
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