This year the tennis world has been engulfed with doping scandals among high-profile players. First, it was Jannik Sinner and then Iga Swiatek, and now US Open doubles champion Max Purcell has joined the list. The Grand Slam winner has been suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) following a breach of anti-doping rules.
Purcell, who has reached a career-high of World No. 8 in doubles and World No. 40 in singles, admitted elected to enter into a provisional suspension under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADF). The offense that the Australian star committed is said to be what the ITIA and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) define as a “Prohibited Method.”
WADA has ruled that the case could be related to the manipulation of blood and blood components, chemical and physical manipulation, or genes. In a statement released on Monday (December 23), the ITIA revealed that Purcell’s suspension came into effect on December 12.
Purcell is now the third high-profile player to be caught in a doping scandal after Sinner and Swiatek. The Australian’s offense relates to the use of “prohibited methods,” while Swiatek and Sinner got in trouble for using “prohibited substance.” But these three cases are a big blow to professional tennis’ reputation.
Sinner’s doping case has been appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) by WADA. The Anti-Doping Agency is seeking that the ATP World No. 1 gets at least a two-year ban despite the ITIA claiming he had no significant fault or negligence on his part. Meanwhile, Swiatek served a one-month suspension after testing positive for trimetazidine in August.
Max Purcell has been one of the outstanding doubles players of his generation. The 26-year-old turned professional in 2016 and won his maiden Challenger title in South Korea that same year. The Aussie made his Grand Slam debut at the 2017 Australian Open after being given a wildcard in the doubles.
Purcell enjoyed his first success after teaming up with Luke Saville. They earned their first breakthrough success after finishing as runners-up in the 2020 Australian Open. He also reached the final again in Melbourne 2022, this time around alongside Matthew Ebden, but they failed to win the title. It was at the 2022 Wimbledon Championship that the pair became victorious.
In 2023, the Grand Slam champion started to improve on his singles results. He advanced to the second round of the French Open for the first time in his career and reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000 tournament. However, this season, he focused more on the doubles as the singles took a backseat.
He renewed his partnership with Jordan Thompson, and they won three ATP doubles titles in four months. They came quite close to winning the Wimbledon Championship but eventually lost. They overcame the heartbreaking loss in New York by winning the US Open doubles title.
