Doping control does not evoke very positive emotions among top players, who sometimes feel that it is necessary to have a certain peace of mind, and such tests create additional pressure on them.
Jessica Pegula, a popular tennis player, revealed an interesting moment before one of her matches, during an interview for The Players’ Box podcast.
Namely, a lady came up and asked her to do drug testing, and Pegula was shocked by this request.
“This lady comes up and says, ‘You have to do drug testing,’” Pegula said, as quoted by Tennis Up To Date.
“I was like, ‘Wait, what? The first set of Emma’s match is almost over — I could be on court in 30 minutes!’”
The American tennis player was unfamiliar with such rules, believing that players could not be tested before a match, especially not at major tournaments.
Pegula understood that she had to agree to the bizarre requirements, a little confused and finding it unacceptable. However, there was not much she could do at that moment, aware that she would face consequences if she refused testing.
“They told me that if I went to the bathroom before my match, it had to count as my urine sample.But if I went during the match, that didn’t count — only after. I was just standing there thinking, ‘This can’t be real.’ It was such a weird set of rules.”
One of the officials also told her that the testing would not take long, but Pegula remained confused and unsure about the entire process.
“He told me, ‘It’ll be five minutes, no big deal. And I was like, ‘No, sir — it’s not that quick.’”
The 31-year-old tennis player said the process was slow and that the whole process seemed confusing, considering that she had never encountered anything like it before.
She also did not understand why they did not want to test her an hour earlier.
Tennis governing bodies and their actions
However, it is clear that doping tests will become more frequent in the future, considering that tennis governing bodies do not want to allow a competition in which some players would have a certain advantage.
The recent incidents with Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner have forced tennis governing bodies to test players in a slightly different way, with the aim of ensuring that every tennis player has an equal foundation for success and the same starting point.
