At the ATP Next Gen Finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, there is an unusual interruption to the game. Jakub Mensik wants to take a short break to use the bathroom – and is stopped by a doping controller.
“Shouldn’t happen”
The break lasted longer than usual and also made his opponent a little restless. After a long time, the 19-year-old returned to the court, cursing, and explained his absence: he had to take a doping sample.
The world no. 48 then complained to the umpire, Nacho Forcadell, who was not impressed by the timing of the test, which resulted in a longer than planned delay to the game, and turned to a tournament official: “Someone from the anti-doping department wanted to test him in the middle of the toilet break, and that delayed everything. So if you could talk to them – that shouldn’t happen.“
Tennis pro Chris Eubanks, who works as an expert for the Tennis Channel, emphasized that as a player you have to expect to be tested at any time. At least “as long as you’re not in the middle of a match,” he said. However, someone has not understood the rules “if you come to a player in the toilet break in the middle of a game and say there is now a doping test,” added the American.
At the time of the interruption, Mensik was already trailing 0-2 sets. The tennis talent also lost the third set and had to admit defeat with 2-4, 3-4 (4-7), 2-4.