Stefanos Tsitsipas says Nick Kyrgios’ cocaine suspension was ‘pretty much expected’

Two-time major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas said he was not surprised to hear of Nick Kyrgios’ suspension after testing positive for cocaine.

The Australian failed a drugs test at a tournament in Mallorca in June, with the test later found to contain benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. He was suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) from 4 August and later posted on social media to say he made a “huge mistake”.

Tsitsipas was asked about the case on Monday after he produced one of the shocks of the US Open so far, defeating in-form 10th seed Arthur Fils in the first round.

He said: “Pretty much expected, to be honest. I am surprised it came so late, though.

“I mean, to be entirely honest with you, I knew about this before the announcement. Myself, I knew about it.

“So what can I tell you? I will just tell you the truth. I knew about all of this before any announcement was made, and when I saw it on social media, I was, like, ‘Here we go.’ I kind of expected it, to be honest.”

Tsitsipas and Kyrgios – who has played scarcely over the last few years after a series of injury struggles – have had a fraught relationship in the past. The two had a testy encounter at Wimbledon in 2022, with the Greek calling Kyrgios a “bully” and playing a couple of shots directly at his opponent. Kyrgios reached his only slam final at SW19 that year.

Tsitsipas added: “I knew that those were things that were happening away from the tennis courts. I will tell you that.

“I’m not going to try and cover up someone that I know the truth for. I’ll consider myself a nice person with everyone, but these were behaviors that I personally heard on the tour and heard other people in that same environment saying those sort of things to me.”

Kyrgios said in his post that he would stepping away from public life and social media for 28 days to “focus on getting myself right”, and apologised to his fans, sponsors and nearest and dearest.

He wrote: “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 do, and coming to terms with being near the end of my career has been harder than I ever imagined.

“I’ve always said I didn’t choose tennis – tennis chose me. But letting go of something that has been my whole life is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to face. At times I’ve felt helpless and alone.

“None of that excuses what I did.”