Arabic version: السماح لكيريوس بالعودة بعد إيقاف شهر بسبب الكوكايين

According to BBC News, Nick Kyrgios is eligible to return to tennis after accepting a one-month ban following a positive test for cocaine. The Australian, 31, was provisionally suspended on 4 August after a sample given during the Mallorca Open in June contained benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.

Kyrgios told International Tennis Integrity Agency investigators that he used cocaine at a nightclub in Magaluf in the early hours of 20 June. He played his Mallorca Open first-round match two days later, losing in straight sets to fellow Australian Adam Walton. After consulting an independent expert, the ITIA accepted that the substance had been used outside competition.

He could have received a ban of up to three months, but the sanction was reduced to one month after he entered a treatment programme. The ban ended on Thursday, 3 September, and Kyrgios will forfeit 6,570 euros (£5,650) in prize money. Cocaine is listed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a stimulant and substance of abuse.

Kyrgios has played only four singles matches this season and has dropped to 918 in the world rankings after struggling with knee and wrist injuries in recent years. His most recent appearance was in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon, where he and Alexander Bublik lost in the first round. The former world number 13 has won seven ATP Tour singles titles and reached the 2022 Wimbledon final, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.