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Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak, a 26-year-old ranked No. 77 on the ATP Tour, didn’t wait for the official release from the ITIA.

Instead, the Polish No. 2 (No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz is the only other Polish man in the top 240) took pre-emptive action.

Majchrzak announced that he had come up positive on a doping test (it appears, on more than one) on his social media Thursday night.

No doubt the actual substance and the timing will be released by the ITIA in short order.

In most cases, the statement comes after the announcement; one notable exception to that was Maria Sharapova’s now-infamous “ugly carpet” press conference in Los Angeles in 2016.

That’s a couple of fairly recognizable players on the men’s side who have gotten dinged in the last week or so, although Fernando Verdasco’s situation resulted from failing to renew a therapeutic use exemption for his ADHD medication.

pic.twitter.com/PiF36I2WMW

— Kamil Majchrzak (@KamilMajchrzakk) December 8, 2022

Majchrzak (pronounced, more or less, “My-shack”) spent most of October in Asia, and won a Challenger event in Busan, South Korea that allowed him to get back into the top 100 and nail down a spot in the main draw at the Australian Open.

He had reached his career high of No. 75 in February after a good early run (including winning all three of his round-robin matches at the ATP Cup) but had fallen out of the top 120.

Two-month ban for Verdasco for inadvertent doping violation (UPDATED)

It appears Majchrzak’s participation in the Australian Summer – at the very least – may be out of the question now; Simona Halep, whose positive doping test was announced two months ago, won’t be there; she isn’t allowed to enter tournaments while she’s on provisional suspension.

But stranger things have happened; sometimes these issues get resolved very quickly if there is a strong defence (see Robert Farah and the tainted steak at Mom’s house) even though the holidays are coming up, and you’d think all the processes slow down.

Majchrzak’s case is a bit different, in that he was already entered in the Australian Open, the deadline has passed, and the rules about tournaments that already were entered are a little bit different.

Interesting on that point – the deadline for the United Cup rosters was Nov. 7. And the organizers would have been allowed to check with the ITIA to see if any of the players on the preliminary entry list might have a pending adverse finding.

So there are two possibilities there: either the United Cup organizers did not vet the preliminary lists with the ITIA. Or, they did and at that point – in early November – there was nothing to report, and Majchrzak remained on the list.

We’ll effort to see if there is ANY information available on this.

Majchrzak’s denial is emphatic; at the same time, from the sound of it he tested positive on more than one occasion for whatever the substance was.

Pospisil Will Move into Main Draw

Assuming Majrchrzak is out of the Australian Open, that would mean that Canadian Vasek Pospisil, ranked No. 100 and the first alternate after the original entry list came out this week, would be straight in.

The Polish United Cup team will also have to make a move.

Hurkacz and Majchrzak, along with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 49 Magda Linette on the women’s side, formed one of the better-balanced entries in the competition.

But it appears they may have to replace him;. At the entry deadline, the third player was Danny Michalski, ranked No. 244. He’s on the squad along with veteran doubles player Lukasz Kubot.

Since then, Kasper Zuk has passed him in the rankings. After that, as it happens, would come Canadian Filip Peliwo, who switched to representing Poland earlier this year. But at No. 370 currently, Peliwo wouldn’t get close to making the Australian Open qualifying, after going all that way.

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