Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek’s failed drug tests were among the biggest talking points in global sport over the last 12 months and now Tennis365 has been given an exclusive insight into how the tennis anti-doping programme operates.
World No 1 Sinner failed a drug test last March as the steroid clostebol was found to be in his system, with the Italian successfully arguing he was not responsible for that positive test.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted Sinner’s explanation that the substance had accidentally entered his system via a product one of his team had used to treat a small wound.
Sinner escaped a suspension by the ITIA, but that judgement has been appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a case that will be heard in 2025.
Meanwhile, five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek was handed a one-month suspension in November after a positive test for the angina medication trimetazidine, with the ITIA accepting her argument that the positive test was caused by contamination of a medicine Swiatek was taking to help combat jet lag.
In this latest extract from an extended Tennis365 interview with ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse, we have been given a detailed look into how the anti-doping programme in tennis is carried out, as well as a glimpse behind the doors of an organisation that also oversees the anti-corruption programme in tennis.
Can you explain how the ITIA was formed and what relationship the organisation has with the key stakeholders in tennis?
Karen Moorhouse: We were established by the seven tennis members – the ITF, ATP, WTA and the four Grand Slam tournaments. In essence, they identified the area of anti-corruption in tennis as an area where they all needed to work together, to collectively respond to the challenge. It is a massive credit to those tennis bodies that they recognised the importance of corruption in the sport and the need to respond to this challenge collectively.
Karen Moorhouse: We were set up in 2021 and at the start of 2022, we also took on the responsibility of the tennis anti-doping programme. So we were set up by the members, funded by the members, but set up on an independent basis. We have a board of nine with one representative each from the members, with the Grand Slams being collectively representative. Then we have five independent board members, ensuring the majority of the board is independent. The executive then takes all the operational decisions and they are independent from all the members.
Who oversaw anti-doping and anti-corruption in tennis prior to 2021?
Karen Moorhouse: The Tennis Integrity Unit was in place before the ITIA and was part of the ITF. The decision was made to take it out of the ITF and make it very clear that this is an entirely separate company with an independent board and that was an important piece of the jigsaw for the members. The signatories of the WADA code are international federations, so the ITF remain the signatories of the WADA code in tennis, but they have fully delegated responsibility to the ITIA in terms of all of the cases and all of the decision-making.
How does the anti-doping programme operate?
Karen Moorhouse: We have an anti-doping team within the ITIA who oversee the programme and work really closely with our intelligence and investigations teams to make sure we are being led on intelligence as much as possible. We also have an education team who deliver the anti-doping training. In terms of the people carrying out the testing, we work with a company called IDTM to do the majority of the testing. We use additional companies and national associations to do testing in other countries to ensure we are efficient in using organisations that are based in different parts of the world to carry out the testing.
Karen Moorhouse: It changes every year. We will always be at the Grand Slams. We always make sure there is a decent amount of testing a those events and then we will have people at all levels of ATP, WTA and ITF events who will also be testing throughout each year to ensure we are covering a good cross-section of people in the sport When the testing has been done, the samples are transported to WADA-accredited labs to evaluate if there are any prohibited substances in those samples. They are the same labs used by other anti-doping bodies. Samples are all anonymous and don’t have names on them when they are sent to the lab.
What happens if a test comes back that has flagged a prohibited substance?
Karen Moorhouse: We will get a notification from the lab to tell us there has been a positive test. We will then go through a process to ensure everything is in place and then we notify the player. At that point, we will send a pre-charge letter to a player. That can be the point for a provisional suspension to be put in place. The player then has a period of time to respond to that pre-charge notice, which is a detailed letter, and then they can be charged after that. Depending on the explanation from the player will depend on how the process moves on from there.
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