2014 Wimbledon runner-up and current pickleball player Eugenie Bouchard approved of Nick Kyrgios' recent comments about Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner's doping cases.
Bouchard, once tipped as a multiple-time Grand Slam winner, has barely played tennis this year to focus on pickleball. Losing in the Canadian Open qualifiers was a rare appearance on the WTA Tour.
The Canadian will participate in Pickleball Slam 3 next February, teaming up with Andy Roddick against Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. Bouchard commented that Agassi sounded scared of her when the eight-time Grand Slam champion said he planned to target Roddick.
She and all current and former ATP and WTA Tours players will have seen Thursday's news that Iga Swiatek was handed a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned trimetazidine.
Swiatek received a provisional suspension on September 12th, but the Pole successfully appealed after testing confirmed her explanation that a non-prescription medicine had been contaminated.
The lifting of her provisional suspension after she appealed within ten days meant Swiatek's case was kept private until the announcement on Thursday confirming the acceptance of a one-month ban.
Sinner's doping case remains ongoing. After testing positive for clostebol, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) initially cleared him of wrongdoing. His only punishment was a loss of the ranking points and prize money earned at the Indian Wells Open.
The ITIA accepted Sinner's explanation that the clostebol entered his system without him knowing after massages from his physiotherapist after he had used a spray for a cut finger, which contained tiny traces of the prohibited substance.
Although the World Anti-Doping Agency did not dispute Sinner's version of how the clostebol entered his system, it argues Sinner bore more fault for that happening and appealed the ITIA's verdict. A ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport will be reached sometime after February 11th.
Kyrgios has been one of Sinner's most vocal critics since his case became public. He also took a jab at Swiatek on X (formerly Twitter) after discovering she had also tested positive for a banned substance.
"The excuse that we can all use is that we didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. Professionals at the highest level of sport can now just say 'we didn’t know.'"
Kyrgios' argument does not seem to hold much weight since Swiatek scientifically proved her explanation about how the banned substance entered her system. The former WTA No. 1 would have remained provisionally suspended otherwise.
However, Bouchard agreed with Kyrgios. The former Wimbledon finalist gave a brief response to the Australian on X to concur with his analysis.
"Guess so."
Kyrgios' analysis lacks evidence to support it, but the frustration from players about two high-profile colleagues testing positive for banned substances is understandable, especially because of how lower-ranked WTA and ATP players have been treated in some cases.
For instance, Mikael Ymer is currently serving an 18-month suspension for missing three doping tests. The Swede might feel harshly treated if Swiatek and Sinner, depending on how his appeal verdict goes, receive lesser punishments when they did test positive.
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