Nick Kyrgios complains of marijuana smell during US Open second round win over David Goffin
The 18-year-old, whose career-best season-ending performance came in a Davis Cup semi-final win over Roger Federer, was given a dose of reality following his win over Goffin in Friday’s opening round.
“I was really disappointed when I realised it was just marijuana smoke,” Kyrgios said. “I thought maybe for one or two sets I could deal with it. I was just disappointed to find out it was just a little bit. The players on the other side were taking big hits and I could see the veins in their arms were pretty swollen. It’s tough to do damage when you’re just smoking a little bit, but I really learned my lesson and hopefully, next year, I will be able to use marijuana without worrying about it.”
That’s no bad thing, obviously, given the impact the substance has on the body. The World Anti-Doping Agency has listed marijuana as an illegal performance-enhancing substance.
While Kyrgios acknowledged he had smoked marijuana at the 2015 Australian Open, he had no other choice this time as he was playing his last Grand Slam tournament before being a pro.
“I’ve been in contact with the World Anti-Doping Agency and they have confirmed as much,” said Kyrgios. “They said they are aware of this and they definitely know it is going on and they are looking into it. I don’t want to get into too much detail because they do have access to a lot of players’ training plans and their schedule. They know what I’m doing. They know I’m in a bad way. They’re just trying to educate a few people about this issue. They don’t know how big this problem really is. I don’t think there’s any way to keep anything from becoming illegal.
“I’ve never taken anything like that before in the past, so I had to take a really strong drug test. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I don’t want to look like I’m trying to cover anything up. I don’t want to come off as trying to hide