Medvedev Reveals How He Narrowly Avoided Doping Ban After Missing 2 Tests

Saturday, 08 July 2023 at 16:00

byKadir Macar

Daniil Medvedev once narrowly avoided a suspension from tennis when he had two missed doping tests as he talked about the practices in place in light of a recent suspension.

Jenson Brooksby's name was absent from any tennis headlines for months as the American was rehabbing from surgeries that addressed injuries that plagued him for much of last year. Now, he was provisionally suspended from competing on the ATP Tour after missing 3 doping tests in the previous 12 months, something he is going to challenge in an independent court.

The American released a statement explaining that he's never done any doping and that the missed test was a misunderstanding as he was waiting for the team to collect the sample. According to Brooksby they never showed up even though he waited in his hotel room.

Holger Rune sort of backed Brooksby in his claims explaining that missed tests do tend to happen from time to time. Medvedev himself has a story about it as he remembered a time when he had two missed tests for a very long time and how he was diligent in avoiding a 3rd one. As we've seen in the case of Brooksby, a 3rd one is an automatic suspension. The Russian talked about it during his press conference at the 2023 Wimbledon.

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I had two for a long time. I made sure I'm not going to miss one more. It's not going to be possible that I'm going to miss one more. Since then I don't think I have ever missed one. I can imagine your interphone [sic] don't work. Yeah, some stories could happen.

— Medvedev on his near-suspension<br>

When it comes to the Brooksby case, the American apparently waited for the agents to come to his hotel room for the sample but it never happened. That was one of three missed tests that Brooksby plans to contest in court.

Regarding Brooksby case, I didn't see in details, but what I heard from my coaches, he says they didn't knock on the right door and something like this. I myself had one time two missed tests. It was the first year I was on the ADAMS system. It's not easy.

— Medvedev on Brooksby<br>

I don't know. Imagine you're not married and you decide to sleep at your girlfriend who's one hour away from your home, and you decide last moment. You forget to change the time slot. One missed test. Three can get pretty fast. Yeah, it is what is. You have to be very careful.

— Medvedev on the complexity of the system<br>

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More broadly on the topic, Medvedev backed the importance of anti-doping measures. If you want to have a fair and even playing field that protects the integrity of the sports, then it's necessary. He's fully supportive of that.

I think anti-doping generally in sports is a good thing. We need it because never know who cheats, who doesn't. The side effect of this is that sometimes you see players in the locker room, then you have stories like many players, I don't even going to say names.

Then you see they have, like, maybe I'm not sure exactly what I'm saying, but five milligrams of one prohibited substance, where even anti-doping in some cases says this couldn't affect your performance. This could be maybe protein shake, who knows, water you drink, for whatever reason it's there.

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While testing is important, sometimes things will happen and you might get provisionally suspended even if you're innocent. We've seen it happen to players in the past and right now there is a very public case with Simona Halep who claims innocence but faces some pretty serious allegations.

If she is truly innocent and proves it in court, the suspension will prove a huge detriment to her career. She's never going to get that time back and for a player who is over 30, all of these months that she's away from the courts matter a lot. It's actually one of the things Medvedev fears though he understands that not all positive results are by accident.

For sure it's a pity if you didn't do anything. I can imagine this happening. Didn't do nothing all your life, then you get a positive result. You know you're probably going to be out for one, two years. You're like, Wow, I haven't done anything. At the same time probably someone has done anything.

— Medvedev on accident 'doping'<br>