Former Australian tennis player Todd Woodbridge, who was number 1 in doubles and who for a long time formed a very strong pair with his countryman Mark Woodforde, has expressed his clear opinion on the events related to the positive tests for doping substances failed by Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek.
He also spoke out on Nick Kyrgios, very active on social media on the two events. However, Woodbridge stressed that these situations will not take away the splendor of the Australian Open 2025.
In a long interview with the Times of India website, the first question he was asked was whether the positive tests of the Italians and Polish will take away the splendor of the Happy Slams, precisely.
“Definitely not. One of the positives that comes out of these cases is that our sport is dealing with them properly. It means our testing is tough, we have a policy that players have to abide by. The next part is the process that they went through. You had two of the best players in the world who had an issue, both of them were able to show what the cause was.
You are innocent until proven guilty. They were able to show cause and effect and the process was quick. There will be other players who stumble or some who might deliberately cheat. There will be issues, but I am happy with the process,” he explained.
As mentioned, Kyrgios took to social media to slam Jannik and Iga, saying even before the draw that he had hoped to be paired with Sinner in Melbourne, which ultimately didn’t happen as he is in Alexander Zverev’s draw zone.
Nick Kyrgios© Stream screenshot
As a former athlete, Woodbridge said, he would never want to put more pressure on himself, as Nick has been out of action for a long time – almost two years – which will be difficult for him.
“I hope he hasn’t set his expectations too high because it will take time to get back to the level he was playing before. Sinner is the best player in the world right now. He’s the defending champion, for me that’s the only thing he’ll have to learn to live with. He hasn’t defended a Grand Slam title in his career, this is the first one. It’ll be a good test,” he added
Tennis World USA