I have just heard that Malisse and Yanina Wickmayer were both suspended by Flemish Doping Tribunal for one year for failing to appear on anti-doping tests (Wickmayer three times in a row).
I guess we will not see Malisse back on court until after the Australian Open. The chances of him getting a wildcard for the tournaments before the AO or the AO itself are zero...
They are now awaiting explanations by Belgian anti-doping agency (who's not the same organization as the one which had taken the decision if I'm not mistaken )
And the Flemish sports ministry took an appeal against yesterday's decision :
the article says that the last decision has been appealed to "Conseil d'Etat", the kind of highest law court in Belgium.
Either the Conseil d'Etat invalidates last decision, which seems likely from what I understand.
Or the Conseil d'Etat confirms it, and then it raises a problem because it raises an old concern about the hierarchy between sports juridictions and general juridictions : can sports juridictions still stay deciders in their matters or can general juridictions impose to them ?
This would be "opening a Pandora box" from the article ... and then I guess the "Conseil d'Etat" will rather come back to the first decision (suspension).
The CAS (sports juridiction) might be the ultimate decider imo.
According to the Flemish press, the ITF has lifted the 1 year bans from both Malisse (they just announced that) and Wickmayer (they announced this yesterday).
Furthermore, I'm not an expert in these things but the anti-doping policy is a regional affair in Belgium, not a federal affair.
There's no such thing as a Belgian anti-doping tribunal since there's an anti-doping policy for Flanders, Wallonia, the Brussels region and the German speaking region. :cuckoo: WADA criticized Belgium for this insanity because they don't follow the same guidelines.
I'm assuming that the foreign media calling it the Belgian anti-doping tribunal instead of the Flemish anti-doping tribunal is because they're just too confused by it all.
“Following the appeal by Belgian tennis players Xavier Malisse and Yanina Wickmayer against the suspensions imposed on them by the Doping Tribunal of the Flemish National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO Flanders) for the commission of three whereabouts failures in an eighteen-month period, a Belgian civil court has ordered NADO Flanders that the suspensions be lifted pending further appeal. As a signatory to the WADA Code, the ITF is required (under article 15.4 of the Code) to give wider recognition to decisions within the authority of other signatories. NADO Flanders is also a signatory to the Code, and accordingly the ITF has removed both Mr Malisse and Ms Wickmayer from the list of suspended players, and both are eligible to participate with immediate effect.”
According to the Flemish press, the ITF has lifted the 1 year bans from both Malisse (they just announced that) and Wickmayer (they announced this yesterday).
Wickmayer was told to not hold her breath for the Australian Open.
Due to the ban, she couldn't register for the AO in time and the Australian officials have told her that a wildcard is unlikely. (Henin has gotten a wildcard, though)
If she can't get in, I doubt that Malisse would be able to participate.
Malisse was indeed on the entry list of Chennai, but he was taken off after the ban (his brother, who is a lawyer in Belgium, said that in an interview a couple of days ago). It's all over the Belgian press he (and Wickmayer) will need wildcards to compete in tournaments in January...
for Chennai it's different from the Australian Open, as the Australian open is mandatory, whereas for Chennai you have to apply.
Considering his ranking, Malisse was entered in the AO entry-list with no choice, and he's still in the list which Smucav holds in another section of the forum.
It would be strange that he has a compulsory entry but is out because of a ban which has been taken out / suspended
Wickmayer's case may be different as WTA applies different rules.
On a (tangentially) related issue - Gasquet should be getting the CAS verdict today.
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