Goncalo Oliveira, a Portuguese-born tennis player representing Venezuela, has been handed a four-year suspension by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after testing positive for methamphetamine. The 30-year-old was provisionally suspended in January following a positive test at an ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico, in November 2024.
Oliveira offered an unusual defence: he claimed the positive result came from kissing a woman at a bar who had consumed an unidentified pill. The woman provided a witness statement, saying she had taken a pill that made her feel euphoric and energetic, and that she and Oliveira had kissed extensively. However, she would not disclose what the drug was.
Despite his testimony, the ITIA ruled that Oliveira failed to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that kissing was the source of the methamphetamine contamination. The ban was upheld, and he will be eligible to return to competition in 2029, having already served part of the suspension.
This case echoes a 2009 incident involving French star Richard Gasquet, who successfully appealed a cocaine suspension by arguing it resulted from kissing a woman in a Miami nightclub.
