The professional tennis trainer Bobby Hicks claims nearly everyone at or near the top of the men’s tour uses performance-enhancing drugs.

“It’s pervasive in tennis and has been for years,” Hicks said.

And he is willing to name names, starting with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and David Ferrer.

There is one catch to these very public accusations: Bobby Hicks is a fictional character.

Hicks appears in Douglas Brunt’s new novel, “Trophy Son,” which will be released next week. It tells the story of Anton Stratis, a tennis prodigy whose childhood is stripped away by an ambitious father who nurtures talent and resentment in his son. Stratis, his entourage and his rivals are all made up.

For the first 80 or so pages, every character is fictional. But then, in Chapter 15, Brunt drops in Hicks’s speculation.