Nick Kyrgios has become the ultimate hypocrite after testing positive for cocaine and being provisionally suspended.
After years of punching down on anyone who popped for a banned substance, the Aussie bad boy is now calling for privacy after it happened to him.
On Wednesday, the 31-year-old was provisionally suspended after testing positive for cocaine, stemming from a sample given at an event in Mallorca in June according to the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
Kyrgios said in a statement on Wednesday night that his injury-riddled seasons, in which he has played only eight tournaments since the start of 2023, had taken a huge toll on him and contributed to his making a regrettable decision.
“I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it,” he said in his apology. “I’m not going to make excuses, but I do want to give some context about where I’ve been. The last couple of years of injuries have taken a huge toll on me both physically and mentally.
“My body hasn’t been able to do what my mind expects it to and coming to terms with being near the end of my career has been harder than I ever imagined.”
However, if he expected the tennis world to be forgiving and understanding, he was mistaken.
Kyrgios long hammered Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek for their failed tests, while bragging he’d never returned a positive test and he dismissed their reasons.
Sinner tested positive for Clostebol, but there was less than one-billionth of a gram found in his samples.
The Italian’s team claimed it had been ingested accidentally after his physio used the drug to treat a cut on his finger, and many experts said it would not have affected performance.
Following an investigation, the International Tennis Integrity Agency found “no fault or negligence” on Sinner’s behalf, and he was banned for three months.
It was a decision Kyrgios labeled “ridiculous” as he made it his mission to ridicule the World No. 1 at any chance possible.
“Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist,” Kyrgios wrote after Sinner accepted the punishment.
He was equally critical of Swiatek’s suspension, writing “our sport is cooked” following the lenient ban handed to Swiatek for a failed drug test.
But those comments have come back to bite him, with several of his previous remarks being brought back up in the wake of his suspension.
One of his comments on an X post has gone viral as fans called out the hypocrisy.
The post from January 2025 reads: “Hypocrite? I’ve never failed drug tests.”
Another pic from an Instagram story where he was asked “Double with Sinner pls”’ has also been dug back up, with the Aussie stating “I only play with CLEAN players”.
Kyrgios also found himself in the crosshairs of former World No. 1 Simona Halep.
The Aussie was critical of Halep after she too failed a drug test and she was quick to deliver a pointed message after his failed test.
“Never kick someone when they’re down. Life has a strange way of changing positions. And an even stranger way of revealing the difference between an accident and a choice,” she wrote on Instagram.
Other prominent tennis media figures have also piled on Kyrgios after the news.
“The amount of Nick Kyrgios’ tweets ageing terribly atm … Just search the word ‘clean’ on his profile,” tennis reporter Jose Morgado said on X.
“Kyrgios’s career is pretty tragic. Just oozed potential in the early stages and I LOVED it back then. His attitude was understandable as a young guy that struggled to deal with the talent he had. I was excited to see how he’d turn out when he matured a bit. Never happened,” popular tennis account Scott Barclay wrote after Kyrgios’ failed drug test.
“Nick Kyrgios is someone who has preached for a clean sport for a long time. Has made nasty remarks to players hitting with those who have failed drug tests in the past (Cruz Hewitt still only a junior at the time). He has now failed a drug test himself and been suspended under the Anti-Doping Programme. Ironic doesn’t begin to sum it up,” Fergus Gavin said.
Safe to say the tennis world won’t let the World No. 919 forget the things he said, namely how critical he has been of tennis’ anti-doping system.
Describing the system as “awful,” Kyrgios previously slammed the overly lenient bans handed down in the past.
But ironically, he will now need that same system to be lenient towards him if he intends to continue his career into his 30s.
Kyrgios will not be able to play until his case is resolved because of a mandatory provisional suspension.
He faces a potential ban of up to four years for his positive test. However, his suspension would be limited to a maximum of three months if he can prove the drug was taken out of competition.
