Kyrgios faces one-month to four-year ban after positive test at Mallorca in June
Nick Kyrgios tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in a sample taken at the grass-court event in Mallorca on 22 June and the length of any ban will depend on whether he can show the drug was taken out of competition.
The Australian is currently serving a mandatory provisional suspension and faces a potential sanction that could stretch to four years, although it would be a maximum of three months if he satisfies investigators that ingestion occurred out of competition. Under the rules a player is considered 'in competition' from the day the draws they are competing in begin until they leave the tournament after their final match. Kyrgios had not played since January's Australian Open and had recently spent very few days on site; he is regarded as having been 'in competition' in Stuttgart between 8-12 June and in Mallorca on 21 and 22 June.
Kyrgios exited the Mallorca tournament in the first round, and it was on 22 June that he submitted the sample later found to contain benzoylecgonine. The substance detected is the metabolite linked to cocaine use and triggered the mandatory provisional suspension now in place. The timing of that sample is central to the investigators' assessment of whether the positive result falls inside or outside the in-competition window.
If Kyrgios persuades the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) that the drug was ingested before he was 'in competition', no independent tribunal would need to be convened and the process would proceed more quickly. In that scenario, and if he agreed to enter a treatment programme, the ban could be as short as one month according to the procedures outlined by the authorities. Conversely, failing to establish out-of-competition ingestion would leave open the possibility of a much longer sanction.
Previous cases provide precedent for differing outcomes. Dan Evans tested positive for cocaine while in competition in 2017 and, under the rules then in place, received a one-year ban despite investigators accepting he had taken the drug several days earlier. The World Anti Doping Agency Code changed in 2021 and that revision affected later cases.
Imran Sibille tested positive for cocaine in an in-competition test at a World Tennis Tour event in Spain in May 2025; after submitting a detailed report from his psychologist, the ITIA accepted he had taken the drug four to five days before his match and that he was not trying to improve his sports performance. Sibille then agreed to complete an ITIA-approved treatment programme and received a one-month ban.
If Kyrgios receives a similar sanction it would come after a period in which other high-profile players have served short bans: Jannik Sinner accepted a three-month ban for testing positive for clostebol, and Iga Swiatek served a one-month suspension after testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ). Kyrgios was very outspoken about those cases, describing the tennis integrity system as "awful".
Kyrgios's provisional suspension began on 4 August; that start date means he could be eligible to compete again from 4 September if a short sanction is imposed or other conditions allow his reinstatement.