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One month or four years? Timing key in Kyrgios ban Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Nick Kyrgios’ provisional suspension began on 4 AugustByRussell Fuller
The severity of the ban facing Nick Kyrgios for testing positive for cocaine depends on whether he can prove he took the drug out of competition.
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine at June’s grass court event in Mallorca, and is currently serving a mandatory provisional suspension.
The ban could theoretically stretch to four years, but it will be a maximum of three months if the Australian can satisfy investigators he took the drug out of competition.
A player is deemed to be ‘in competition’ from the day the draws they are competing in begin until they leave the tournament after their final match.
Before the grass court season, former world number 13 Kyrgios had not played since January’s Australian Open and so has recently spent very few days on site.
He is considered to have been ‘in competition’ in Stuttgart between 8-12 June, and again in Mallorca on 21 and 22 June.
It was on the 22 June – when he exited the tournament in the first round – that Kyrgios submitted the sample that was later found to contain benzoylecgonine.
If the 31-year-old can convince the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) he ingested the drug before he was ‘in competition’, there would be no need for an independent tribunal to be formed.
This would make the process far quicker, and if Kyrgios subsequently agreed to enter a treatment programme, the ban could be short as one month.
His provisional suspension began on 4 August, meaning he could even be eligible to compete again from 4 September.
Britain’s Dan Evans tested positive for cocaine while in competition in 2017 and, under the rules at the time, was banned for one year despite investigators accepting he had taken the drug several days earlier.
The World Anti Doping Agency Code changed in 2021 – to the benefit of a man named Imran Sibille.
The Moroccan tested positive for cocaine during an in-competition test at a World Tennis Tour event in Spain in May 2025.
But having submitted a detailed report from his psychologist, the ITIA accepted he had taken the drug four to five days before his match and was not trying to improve his sports performance.
Sibille then agreed to compete an ITIA-approved treatment programme, and so was only banned for one month.
If Kyrgios does end up with a similar sanction, the irony is unlikely to be lost on Jannik Sinner or Iga Swiatek, who recently served bans in high-profile doping cases.
Sinner accepted a three-month ban for testing positive for clostebol, while Swiatek served a one-month suspension after testing positive for heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ).
Kyrgios was very outspoken about their cases, considering them to be overly lenient and described the tennis integrity system as “awful”.
Kyrgios suspended after positive cocaine test
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