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Former tennis ace Jelena Dokic says anti-doping will only become a bigger talking point in coming years as the fallout continues from two leading players testing positive to banned substances this year.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, the respected commentator and former women’s world No.4 said the current anti-doping process was complex and unclear with a disproportionate focus on the culpability of players.
Jelena Dokic addresses the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.Credit: AAP
“There’s been a lot of spotlight on players ... but then no spotlight on actually why that happened and why there was contamination, why a company or whoever supplied and so on isn’t bearing responsibility,” she said. “I think it’s a very unclear process, takes a toll, especially on the players, and definitely needs to be quicker. There are a lot more people out there that need to bear responsibility for certain things.”
Professional tennis was rocked this year when men’s world No.1 Jannik Sinner twice tested positive to clostebol and women’s world No.2 Iga Swiatek tested positive in August to trimetazidine. Outspoken Australian player Nick Kyrgios described the sport as “cooked.”
Swiatek escaped with a token one-month ban after the International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted her defence that the result was due to contamination of melatonin medication. Sinner, who said the drug entered his system through a massage given by a support staffer, was allowed to continue playing by tennis authorities. However, the World Anti-Doping Association is appealing that decision and is pushing for a ban of between one and two years.
The issue of anti-doping in tennis “is going to be a massive conversation in the next couple of years,” Dokic said.
Jelena Dokic, at 16, on her way to a shock defeat of Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-0 at Wimbledon in 1999.Credit: Adam Butler/AP
Dokic famously defeated world No.1 Martina Hingis in the first round at Wimbledon in 1999 as a 16-year-old and went on to win six WTA singles titles before retiring.
That was despite suffering mental and physical abuse at the hands of her father Damir, who forced her, aged 19, to switch allegiance from Australia to her country of birth, Yugoslavia – a move she maintained she would have endured “100 years of abuse” to reverse.