Novak Djokovic was left infuriated by what he described as an “outrageous” decision by doping authorities to subject him to a random drug test just an hour and a half before he was set to square off with Cameron Norrie at the Davis Cup in Malaga.
Djokovic was able to comfortably see off his foe 6-4 6-4 to dump Great Britain out of the tournament in the quarter-finals after Miomir Kecmanovic defeated Jack Draper 7-6 (2) 7-6 (6) to give Serbia an early lead. They will now face Italy in the semis on Saturday.
It may have been smooth sailing on the court for Djokovic but off of it was a different story. “I haven’t done a complete doping control yet, I had yet to draw blood. A man sits in the corner, he follows me for hours,” recalled Djokovic. “I had a discussion with him because in 20 years of my career, it didn’t happen to me before.
“I received a notification an hour and a half before the match. I have my routine and I don’t need to be distracted. To think about drawing blood, to think about whether I will be able to give a sample of urine… A completely illogical decision.
“When I spoke to the representative of the doping agency, they told me that the reason was that it would be very late after the match and also to give the other national team time to rest, but then I told them that the winner of tonight’s duel will not play tomorrow.
“I’ve always supported testing, but not before the match. What will that change? I’ll be there, when the match is over, test me. I have a blood test coming up. I hope they change the decision.
“It is interesting that the doping agency is a private company. There should be a discussion that we as a world organization within our ecosystem, so to speak, have our own agency. I don’t know what to add, probably everything I say will be interpreted differently.
“This is outrageous. There’s nothing to hide, but there are also some limits. They don’t understand what’s happening here. They don’t understand sport, they don’t understand where they are.”
To make matters worse, they even tried to test Djokovic’s coach Viktor Troicki after mistaking him for Kecamonvic. “They even startled me, but they confused me with Kecmanovic. They are just doing their job, following their boss’ request. No kidding,” Troicki joked.
