
The 2019 statistics from the ITF’s anti-doping arm – both in and out of competition – are out.
And the “winners” for Most Tested in 2019 are Hyeon Chung on the men’s side, and Viktoria Kuzmova on the women’s side.
Chung has had a lot of injuries since he broke out at the 2018 Australian Open and hasn’t played since last October. He was tested 34 times in 2019 (four in competition and … 30 out).
Kuzmova, a 23-year-old from the Slovak Republic ranked No. 65, also had 34 tests (11 in competition and 23 out of competition).
The statistics do not include tests done by the players’ national anti-doping organizations.
In all some 1,580 players were tested in 2019.
Most players tested little
(Note: We did the math manually on … 36 pages of player listings; the numbers were swimming after awhile. So the numbers they may off by a few. But, overall, they’re more than close enough to give an accurate picture)
That total of 1,580 players is a little misleading. According to our calculations, more than 1,000 were tested in competition twice or less (793 once, 248 twice and another 13 were not tested in competition).
The total number of tests was 3,975. That works out to an average of just over five in-competition tests per year for those who had more than two.
Out of competition, there were nearly as many doping tests performed – a total of 3,700.
But those were distributed among a far smaller pool of players. Only 254 of those 1,580 players were tested out of competition – an average of 14.5 per player.
Top guys tested plenty

Of the top three, Rafael Nadal was tested the most in competition – 12 times, and a total of 29 times overall.
Novak Djokovic was tested 10 times in competition, 24 overall.
And Roger Federer was tested only nine times in competition, but another 20 out of competition for a total of 29.
Kei Nishikori also was tested 29 times (12-17, just like Nadal). He played 15 tournaments in 2019 – but none after the US Open.
On the women’s side, Julia Goerges did 30 tests (11 in competition, 19 out of competition).
Ashleigh Barty had 29 tests overall (12-17) while Simona Halep went 10-17. Johanna Konta went 10-18 and Karolina Pliskova went 11-17, also for a total of 28.
Out-of-competition testing

Among the other men, Stan Wawrinka, Feliciano Lopez and Filip Krajinovic underwent 20 out-of competition tests.
On the women’s side, those with 20 included Taylor Townsend (who was tested just three times in competition), Anastasia Sevastova (five times in competition) Anastasia Potapova and Kaia Kanepi.
Interestingly, the recently-retired Ekaterina Makarova was tested … 23 times.
Five of those came in competition, per the list. And yet Makarova played only three tournaments in 2019. She lost in the first round of singles at the Australian Open, St. Petersburg and Dubai.
Makarova also played doubles at those three events. And she hasn’t played since.
South Americans on the watch
Some of the more notorious positive doping tests have historically come out of South America.
That includes two players who were suspended for doping early in 2020 – Colombia doubles specialist Robert Farah, and up-and-coming Chilean Nicolas Jarry.
(Farah has since been cleared, and returned to action last week in Buenos Aires).
Many of the players from that part of the world were tested quite a bit in 2019 – notably, world No. 1 doubles team Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.
Here are some of the notables.
Juan Sebastian Cabal (11-17=28)
Cristian Garin (11-16=27)
Nicolas Jarry (11-13=24)
Guido Pella (7-17=24)
Robert Farah (11-12 = 23)
Federico Delbonis (4-17=21)
Guido Andreozzi (3-17=20)
Thomaz Bellucci (2-17=19) (Bellucci served a five-month doping suspension in 2018)
Diego Schwartzman (10-8=18)
Despite the history, the vast majority of Argentine and Chilean players were not tested out of competition. Of the 77 Argentines on the list, only six were tested out of competition even once (Del Potro, Delbonis, Mayer, Pella, Schwartzman and … No. 138 Guido Andreozzi, who began 2019 ranked No. 70 and was tested out of competition 17 times).
Only two of the 26 Chileans on the list (Garin and Jarry) were tested among both men and women.
Juan Ignacio Londero and Horacio Zeballos were never tested out of competition.
Odds, ends and oddities
There are a few outliers, in terms of the dope testing.
*Giulia Capocci of Italy, who was tested just once in competition, got the call 22 times out of competition. Capocci is a wheelchair player; the testing in that discipline seems more comprehensive.
*Ymanitu Silva, a wheelchair player from Brazil, was never tested in competition, but submitted to 15 tests out of competition.

*Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova was another player who was tested quite a bit outside of competition. The 25-year-old had eight in-competition tests – and 19 out of competition.
*Latvia’s Ernest Gulbis was tested only ONCE in competition. But he was tested 17 other times out of competition.
*Angelique Kerber, a prominent player on the WTA Tour, was tested 17 times out of competition. But she only had … TWO tests in competition. Caroline Garcia was tested only four times in competition (16 outside).

No 2019 tests for Bouchard in competition
*Perhaps the biggest anomaly of all, Canadian Genie Bouchard was never tested in competition during all of 2019, according to the list. (She also was tested 17 times out of competition, and may also have been tested by the Canadian national doping authority).
*The same numbers apply for Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia. She was never tested in competition, but 17 times outside of competition.
*Of the players on the list who also never had an in-competition test, we note the presence of Coco Vandeweghe, the American who missed the first half of the season because of a foot injury. Still, Vandeweghe played three WTA Tour events, the US Open, and four of the larger ITF/WTA 125 events in the U.S. late in the season. She was tested out of competition 15 times.
*Kim Clijsters, who returned to action this week in Dubai, had six out-of-competition doping tests in 2019. She was officially reinstated only on Dec. 30, 2019. That would mean that during the three months she had to wait between applying for reinstatement and officially being cleared to compete, she underwent those tests.
(This is not an exhaustive list of outliers; there may well be more).
More Stories
ATP Tour – Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 final results
WTA Tour – Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 final results
ATP Tour – Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025 final results