The two top-ranked tennis players in the world support fellow player Andy Murray’s desire to have more stringent drug testing in the sport.
Speaking ahead of the Masters event in Paris two weeks ago, Murray said he wanted harsher drug testing in tennis, including more blood tests. Both world No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic and world No. 2 player Roger Federer support those changes.
“I feel I’m being less tested now than six, seven, eight years ago,” Federer said on Monday in London ahead of the ATP World Finals, according to the BBC.
“I don’t know the reasons we are being tested less and I agree with Andy, we don’t do a lot of blood testing during the year. I’m OK having more of that.”
“I just think it’s important to have enough tests out there,” said Federer. “I don’t like it when I’m only getting tested whatever number it is, which I don’t think is enough or sufficient during the year.
“I think we should up it a little bit, or a lot – whatever you want to call it – because I think it’s key and vital that the sport stays clean. It’s got to. We have a good history in terms of that and we want to make sure that it stays that way.”
Djokovic, who moved ahead of Federer in the ATP Tour rankings this week, agreed with Federer.
“We are trying to make this sport as clean as possible, as fair as possible for everybody, so I have nothing against testing and, why not, we should do it more.”
Now that three of the top players in the world have voiced their opinion, I would expect tennis officials to respond by enacting a more strict testing policy. Perhaps players will be tested more frequently, regardless of their ranking.
