WADA slams Djokovic over doping slur

Novak Djokovic

The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency has slammed Novak Djokovic for his comments regarding WADA’s administration of anti-doping controls and procedure. Last week, Djokovic said he had lost all faith in tennis’ anti-doping authorities after his countyman, Viktor Troicki, was handed a 12-month ban for failing to provide a requested blood sample at an ATP tournament earlier this year.

“I don’t think Novak Djokovic has the faintest idea what we do and if he wants to understand what we do I’m more than happy to pick up the phone and talk to him, if he wants to talk to me,” John Fahey, president of WADA, told CNN. “If he wishes to then make a comment I might listen to him but for the moment I don’t think that was an informed statement.”

Last week, in response to the Court of Arbitration of Sport’s decision on Troicki’s appeal, Djokovic railed against tennis’ anti-doping system. “[The Troicki case] proves again that this system of WADA and the anti-doping agency doesn’t work,” Djokovic said during the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Djokovic believed it was the responsibility of the anti-doping agencies to provide clear explanations as to the rules and regulations surrounding a player’s responsibilities and the consequences of failing to provide a requested blood sample.

“I don’t have trust in what’s going on,” Djokovic said. “I don’t know if tomorrow the doping control officers who are representatives of…WADA there at the tournaments, because of their unprofessionalism, because of their negligence, because of their inability to explain the rules in a proper way, I don’t know if they’re going to misplace the test that I have or anything worse than that.”