Djokovic sidesteps tennis doping chaos

Novak Djokovic on Sunday tiptoed around the raging tennis anti-doping crisis, failing to condemn the attacks by Nick Kyrgios against world No. 1 Jannik Sinner.

Djokovic, who will bid for an 11th Australian Open title starting in a fortnight, is using the upcoming week at the Brisbane International as his tuneup after cutting back massively on his playing schedule at age 37.

But the Serb failed to admonish Kyrgios – his doubles partner in Brisbane – for slamming Italy’s Sinner, who was found not to be at fault after twice testing positive in March for an anabolic steroid.

Sinner served a month ban and forfeited some prize money, but that was not enough for Kyrgios, a tennis bad boy making a return after two years out with various injuries and personal problems.

The Australian has launched a series of social media attacks against the top-ranked Sinner, calling the doping case outcome “disgusting” and slamming tennis integrity as “awful”.

Djokovic threaded the needle on the controversy:

“We live in a world where opinions can be expressed on social media. Nick has expressed what he thinks of the Jannik case and he has reason regarding the transparancy and the incoherence of the protocol.

“We’ve seen many players in the past suspended for just not reporting their location (for surprise drug testers).

“Some lower-ranking players have waited up to a year for their cases to be resolved.

“I’ve known Jannik since he was young and don’t think he would dope. I believe in a clean sport…

“But I’m frustrated like many players that we were kept in the dark for five months until we heard the news.

“It’s not a good image for tennis.”