Nick Kyrgios Cleared to Return After Cocaine Ban
Nick Kyrgios has been cleared to return to tennis after accepting a one‑month ban for cocaine use and enrolling in a treatment programme, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed on Friday.
The 31-year-old Australian, a Wimbledon finalist in 2022, failed a doping test during an ATP event in Mallorca on June 22. He was provisionally suspended on August 4 after the positive test emerged and publicly admitted he had made “a huge mistake”.
According to the ITIA, Kyrgios told investigators the cocaine use happened socially during a night out before he was due to compete in Mallorca. The agency consulted an independent scientific expert at a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory, who concluded that his account matched the concentration of cocaine found in his sample.
That detail proved decisive.
“As a result, the ITIA accepted that Kyrgios’ use of cocaine was outside of competition,” the agency said.
Under WADA rules, this type of violation usually carries a three-month suspension, but the sanction can be cut to one month if the player commits to a recognised treatment programme. Kyrgios has done exactly that.
“Kyrgios has entered into a treatment programme,” the ITIA confirmed. “As such, the player’s suspension will end on September 3, 2026, subject to completion of the programme. Prize-money and ranking points from the Mallorca event will be forfeited.”
For a player who once rattled the sport’s establishment with his shot-making and swagger, the numbers now tell a stark story. Kyrgios owns seven ATP singles titles and climbed to a career-high ranking of 13 in 2016. Today he sits at 918 in the world.
His peak remains that electric fortnight on the lawns of Wimbledon in 2022, when he surged to the final before falling to Novak Djokovic in four sets. It felt then like the start of a late-career surge. It never materialised.
Injuries hacked away at his momentum. Surgeries followed, the most serious a complete reconstruction of his right wrist in 2024. Each comeback seemed to end before it truly began.
His most recent competitive appearance came in July this year, when he entered the men’s doubles at Wimbledon as a wildcard alongside Alexander Bublik. They lost in the first round, a brief and subdued outing for a player once synonymous with Centre Court drama.
When news of the failed test broke last month, Kyrgios did not try to deflect blame. On Instagram, he admitted the violation and addressed the fallout head-on.
“I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine,” he wrote. “I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it.
“I’m sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me. Above all, I’m sorry to the kids who follow me. I know the example this sets and I’m deeply disappointed in myself.”
Now comes the hardest part: not the ban itself, but what follows. A former top-20 talent, a Wimbledon finalist, reduced to rebuilding from the fringes of the sport, carrying both the scars of surgery and the stain of a doping violation.
The door back onto the tour is open. What Kyrgios does with it will define the final chapters of one of tennis’s most turbulent careers.
