The initial speculation was that Nick Kyrgios could have been banned for years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for testing positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in June. The player didn't dispute that he had ingested cocaine two days before he played a match at the Mallorca Championships.
That suspension was then reduced to a max of three months, but that didn't turn out to be the case either. Ultimately, the ban was for only one month, and that month has already passed. This means that, if he wanted, Kyrgios could play in a tournament as soon as he wanted and face no further discipline from the ITIA.
The question might be how the Australian would be welcomed back by other players. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Karen Khachanov have both been outspoken about their attitude toward Kyrgios, and they are most likely not the only players who think that the Aussie deserves some criticism and disdain.
Nick Kyrgios is already free to return to tennis
The problem isn't that Kyrgios took cocaine, necessarily, but that he had previously used his personal podcast and social media platforms to ridicule other players for wrongdoing, such as how he talked about the Jannik Sinner situation. Sinner had been suspended for three months in early 2025 for failing two drug tests at Indian Wells in 2024.
The Australian felt that the Italian should have been banned for far longer, and that Sinner might have gotten off too lightly because of his ranking and draw in the sport. Now, it is Kyrgios who is getting off lightly.
The obvious difference is between Sinner testing positive for clostebol, a banned synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid that could help with endurance in matches, and Kyrgios ingesting cocaine, something that probably isn't going to help Kyrgios win a match. But that isn't where Tsitsipas and Khachanov have an issue.
Their approach to Nick Kyrgios stems from Kyrgios's outspokenness about other players while also trying to create a bad-boy persona. Many, rightly or wrongly, expected the Australian to do something wrong at some point, and the sad part is that he appears to have done so.
As far as tennis is concerned, his positive test didn't have much of a bearing on his career. Even if he was healthy enough to play (and actually wanted to play), he wouldn't have done so at the US Open. How soon he chooses to return, if he comes back at all, will be an interesting thing to monitor, as well as how he is welcomed back by other players.
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