In front of the Serbian media, Novak Djokovic, referring to a doping control, appeared annoyed after his country’s victory against Great Britain on Thursday. It seemed abnormal to him that the inspectors were present before the meeting to carry out the inspection.
“ This is the first time this has happened to me in twenty years on the circuit. No sense in doing it before when I’ll be here after the gamehe explained. I haven’t completed the check yet, but I have already given a blood sample. They warned me an hour and a half before the match started. I have my pre-game routines and I don’t have to think about donating blood or urine at that time. I have always defended testing, but not before matches. There is nothing to hide, but there must be certain limits. They wanted to do it before the match, they explained to me, so as not to interfere with the players’ rest after the match. I explained to them that the winning team rested on Friday. »
Djokovic did not refuse the test
In fact, the Serb need not have been surprised. During the captains’ meeting before the start of the “Final 8″, they were informed that there could be checks, either before or after a match (on the circuit, checks only take place After). Djokovic chose to be tested afterwards, but the Serbian team was therefore ”followed” by the anti-doping officer as soon as the test started.
“ In Davis Cup, teams are notified before the start of the match. This allows players to choose if they prefer to do this before their match, otherwise it will be aftera member of the organization told us. They have a choice. Some players prefer to do it before, it frees them up after the meeting, which is also not bad, they avoid staying on site too long after the end of a meeting… »
The ITIA, the body responsible for tennis testing, confirmed the protocol to us. “ The first thing to say is that Djokovic did not refuse the test. The rules state that when a player is notified, they must provide a sample as soon as they can. In team competitions such as the Davis Cup, players may be informed before a match, whereas in other competitions testing usually takes place after the match. The procedure has not been changed, either for this event or for the player. »