Nick Kyrgios Returns to Tennis After One-Month Suspension
Nick Kyrgios is free to return to tennis after serving a one‑month suspension for a positive cocaine test, the latest twist in a career that has rarely strayed far from controversy.
The 31-year-old Australian was provisionally suspended on 4 August when a sample taken during the Mallorca Open in June was found to contain benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. He told investigators from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) that he had used the drug at a nightclub in Magaluf in the early hours of 20 June.
Two days later, he stepped on court in Mallorca for his first-round match and lost in straight sets to compatriot Adam Walton.
After consulting an independent expert, the ITIA accepted Kyrgios’ account that the cocaine use occurred out of competition. Under anti-doping rules, cocaine is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a stimulant and a substance of abuse, and the Australian faced a possible three-month ban.
The penalty was cut to one month once Kyrgios entered a treatment programme. That ban ended on Thursday, 3 September, making him immediately eligible to compete again. He must forfeit his Mallorca prize money of 6,570 euros (£5,650).
The suspension came at a time when Kyrgios had already been drifting away from the sport through injury and frustration. Now ranked 918 in the world, the former world number 13 has played only four singles matches this season after ongoing knee and wrist problems.
His most recent appearance came in men’s doubles at Wimbledon, where he and Alexander Bublik went out in the first round.
When the positive test was announced, Kyrgios said he would step away from social media and public life for 28 days to “focus on getting myself right”. It followed a lengthy Instagram statement earlier in the year, after his initial suspension, in which he described the toll of the past few seasons.
He wrote that injuries had taken “a huge toll on me, both mentally and physically”, and admitted that “my body hasn't been able to do what my mind expects it to do”. He also confronted the reality of his career’s trajectory, saying that coming to terms with being near the end had been “harder than I ever imagined”, before adding bluntly: “None of that excuses what I did.”
For tennis, Kyrgios remains an uneasy paradox. A seven-time ATP Tour singles champion and the 2022 Wimbledon finalist, where he pushed Novak Djokovic to four sets, he has also built a reputation as one of the sport’s most combustible figures.
His on-court behaviour has drawn repeated criticism and heavy fines for racquet-smashing, audible obscenities and prolonged arguments with umpires. Away from the baseline, his record is just as turbulent. In 2023 he admitted assaulting an ex-girlfriend in an incident two years earlier, avoiding a criminal conviction but attracting widespread condemnation.
He has also been accused of misogynistic comments and drew fresh criticism in 2024 when he shared a post from controversial influencer Andrew Tate, later insisting he had gone “to all lengths” to distance himself from the self-proclaimed misogynist.
Even in the anti-doping arena, where he now finds himself under scrutiny, Kyrgios had positioned himself as a vocal critic. He publicly attacked the handling of two high-profile cases involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, describing them as “disgusting” for tennis.
Now the spotlight has swung back on him. The ban is over, the treatment programme is under way, and the ranking has tumbled. The question is not whether Kyrgios can return to a court — he can — but whether he has the appetite, the fitness and the discipline to matter again in a sport he has spent a decade simultaneously electrifying and antagonising.
