Halep’s Instagram story landed on Wednesday. She did not name Nick Kyrgios. She did not need to.
“Never kick someone when they’re down. Life has a strange way of changing positions. And an even stranger way of revealing the difference between an accident and a choice,” she wrote, according to Tennis Up To Date.
The timing tied the post to Kyrgios, who was named earlier the same day by the International Tennis Integrity Agency as having tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite. The sample was collected at the ATP 250 event in Mallorca in June and confirmed by a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory on 17 July. His provisional suspension took effect on 4 August.
The 31-year-old former Wimbledon finalist has not appealed. He posted a public apology the same day.
“I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it,” Kyrgios said.
“I’m sorry to my fans, my family, my sponsors and everyone close to me.”
“Above all, I’m sorry to the kids who follow me. I know the example this sets and I’m deeply disappointed in myself.”
The taunts Halep did not forget
Halep’s message hit because Kyrgios’s older ones were not subtle. When the Romanian was handed a four-year ban in September 2023 after her positive test for roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, Kyrgios pushed in publicly.
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“I’d imagine if I was taking similar things to be banned for 4 years I’d have about 5 slams,” he wrote at the time, according to Sportskeeda.
He also told players to “just stop taking shady sh*t” and to look at themselves in the mirror, a line Yahoo Sports revisited on Wednesday.
An accident and a choice
The distinction Halep drew in her post, the one between an accident and a choice, echoes the finding that eventually cleared her to return. In March 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her ban to nine months, ruling that the roxadustat had entered her body through a contaminated nutritional supplement she had used shortly before the 2022 US Open. The panel accepted she did not bear significant fault for the violation, and her period of ineligibility was backdated to expire on 6 July 2023.
Kyrgios’s case will proceed to a tribunal. Until then he cannot play in, coach at or attend any event organised by the ATP, WTA, ITF, the four Grand Slams or a national tennis association.
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