'TAKING FREEDOM OF LIFE AWAY': ZVEREV EXPOSES DOPING TEST FLAW AS HE SHARES STORY OF DAUGHTER

Not all players are happy about the doping test system. (Getty/Irina. R Hipolito)

For tennis and other sports to remain as clean as possible, athletes understand that they must be available for drug testing at all times.

In October 2023, American Jenson Brooksby was slapped with an 18-month ban by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for three "whereabouts failures" by not showing up for scheduled doping tests.

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Since last year's controversial doping cases of Jannik Sinner and Iga Świątek, fans and players have grown sceptical about tennis' fairness and integrity.

Ahead of his appearance at the Mutua Madrid Open, world No.2 Alexander Zverev was quick to call out the anti-doping system for restricting basic freedoms.

"I think it’s just a subject that we’ve been talking about more over the last half a year or so, because of, obviously, Jannik and Iga, a little bit. But in general, nothing really changes for us, nothing changed," he said during his pre-tournament press conference.

"It is an annoying process, I have to be honest, because we have to be at a certain place every single day where we kind of give our details of where we’re going to be for like an hour a day. But at the same time, if they show up not in the hour that we gave them, you still have to come back to the place."

To back up his argument, Zverev recounted an incident at the end of last year involving his young daughter.

"It was end of last year or so in December, where I was, I think I was picking up my daughter from the airport in Nice, and then doping control, my slot is like at 7 or 8am, and they came at 9pm," he explained.

"They call me, like, You have to come back. I’m like, I can’t, I’m picking up a three-year-old child. They’re like, No, you have to come back, doesn’t matter what happens.

"So that is more annoying, because it’s kind of they’re taking the freedom of life away a little bit. Okay, if you want to come within the hour, that’s fine, because that’s the rule. But then after that, you have to give us the freedom of living.

"Just because you decided that you want to show up at a random time and not at the time slot that you are given doesn’t mean that I have to completely change my plans and leave everything and all of a sudden be available to you. That’s not right.

"So, if you want to come at the right time, that’s fine. But if you want to just completely mess with our lives, then that’s not fine, in my opinion.

"As I said, if I pick my daughter up from the airport, that is more important to me, and that should be a priority to me. That system and that anti-doping system cannot decide for you that you have to leave everything and all of a sudden come back straight away. I think that’s wrong. That system can be better."

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