DDuring a particularly naughty period in his life, many years ago, 21-year-old Gaël Monfils returned from a long night of partying at 5:45 in the morning and fell asleep after a quick run to the bathroom. A few minutes later he was woken up by a doping control officer at his front door: “I’m dying in my bed and somehow I hear the man coming. Barely. I’m dead and he’s coming,” says Monfils, laughing.
One of the requirements for being an elite player is that you must provide your location for an hour every day as part of the Anti-Doping Whereabouts System, which allows anti-doping authorities to conduct unannounced out-of-competition doping tests. For years, the Frenchman, like most other players, has identified 6am as his usual time, a time when he will certainly be at home or in his hotel room.
On this occasion, an exhausted Monfils opted for an unorthodox solution: “I say, ‘Bro, there’s no chance I [can] pee. I know you need to be with me. Come to my room.’
“I set up a chair. He was there and I said, ‘Sorry, I’m going to sleep. I don’t know when I’m going to wake up, but you can have a vision of me. It’s not that I don’t want to pee. I’ll be honest: I’ve been gone. I peed five minutes ago. I can’t.’.’”
It turned out to be a much longer nap than Monfils expected: “I woke up at 3 p.m., the guy was scrolling on his phone. [I say] “Hey, brother.” I pee. So he waited for me for 10 hours. He could steal everything in my house.”
Between training, fitness, competitions and the brutal challenge of traveling to tournaments around the world, being professional means navigating the strict rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which all athletes in Olympic sports must adhere to. However long it takes, each player must provide a urine or blood sample when called upon.
Once a player has been selected for testing, the Doping Control Officer must remain with the athlete and monitor them at all times. That often means having a complete stranger in your home. Tallon Greekpoor, the Dutch number 1, remembers a time when a doping control official spent three hours on his bench: “We were watching an Ajax match for 90 minutes.”
Athletes can also be approached outside their chosen time, which is a source of irritation for some. If a doping control officer calls and is near the location he specified, the player is required to return to the location immediately. Last year, talented Czech 19-year-old Jakub Mensik had to drop out of high school to return home for a test. It took him three hours to create a sample.
Taylor Fritz was once intercepted by a doping control official in the lobby of his Shanghai hotel as he arrived from a long flight: “The guy was in my room and I was taking ten minutes of naps at a time because I was so jet lagged and so tired. I kept waking myself up every ten minutes to see if I could pee because I couldn’t.”
The doping control officer must also closely monitor athletes when they provide their samples. Frenchman Arthur Fils emphasizes the unusual nature of such encounters: “One stranger looking at you while you’re peeing is pretty cool,” he says, laughing. “So every time it’s a strange situation.”
For Jack Draper, this has led to some particularly uncomfortable experiences: “It’s a tough moment, right? Sometimes you push so hard you fart and you’re right next to it.”
Despite the unusual nature of these interactions, Andrei Rublev notes that players are getting used to them. Often it helps to see the same faces: “Sometimes, if the guy is maybe a rookie, or if I’ve never seen him before, he’ll look a bit like a CEO: ‘Now put your pants around your knees.’ I say, ‘Man, what’s the difference if it’s about the knees or not?’ He says, ‘No, these are the rules. Everyone must follow.”
“Sometimes I run into those guys, but it was maybe once or twice in my life. The rest is respectful, they’re okay. They’re there, they’re watching, but they’re not trying to drive you crazy.”
Draper often reminds himself that these encounters are not ideal for anyone involved: “It’s a tough job for them. I always keep that in mind. Some people get irritated because it’s a very intimate situation. But I sympathize with that person. It’s their job.”
In the final weeks of the 2016 season, Madison Keys was in the hunt for a spot in the WTA Finals. Hours after her semi-final loss in Beijing, Keys had already secured a last-minute wildcard for the Linz Open: “We ran to the hotel, packed and got on the plane two hours later and I forgot to update my whereabouts. [to say] that I wouldn’t be in Beijing – I’d be on a plane. They came the next morning. I remember landing in Linz and immediately sobbing, ‘Oh no, I have a strike.’ It’s so stressful.”
Many players cite managing their whereabouts information as one of the biggest causes of stress, especially in a sport that requires so much travel and last-minute itinerary changes. However, it is an important part of their work. Like many others, British number 2, Cameron Norrie, is working with his agent to manage his whereabouts: “We have a group chat and we take screenshot [the app] every night, or he sends it, and we know exactly where it will be every night.
However, Jessica Pegula refuses to let anyone else determine her whereabouts: “I do it alone. I just would never want anyone else to do that because if they made a mistake about it, I would be furious.”
A single strike is far from unusual. During a recent period away from tour due to injury, Bianca Andreescu extended her trip in Thailand by a day but forgot to change her whereabouts information. The next day she received a call from an official at her front door in Monaco.
Pegula says: “I know there are a lot of girls who have maybe messed up a few dates and [were] on their second or third strike and they say, ‘That was the worst year of my life. I didn’t sleep. I was just in bed.’ You make sure the doorbell works. Every phone is on. It can be very stressful.”
Like most other sports, countless tennis players have been banned for failed whereabouts after missing three tests within 12 months. Recent examples include Mikael Ymer and Jenson Brooksby receiving 18-month bans in 2023. Brooksby’s ban was lifted in early 2024.
Keys thinks missing tests is much easier than most people think. “It’s stressful, it’s hard,” she says. “I understand why it needs to be done, but it’s funny how it seems very simple, but when you actually do an hour of accountability, 365 days a year, every year, you make mistakes.”
Fritz agrees: “It’s important that we have fair sport and that people can get tested at random times. But all I want to say is that people shouldn’t underestimate how common… things happen.”
#rewatched #Ajax #match #tennis #antidopers #shout