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Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Wada IC report published)

587K views 5K replies 580 participants last post by  Chris Kuerten 
#1 · (Edited)
A Short History of Drugs in Tennis
by Michael Mewshaw

The bizarre saga of Richard Gasquet and his conviction for cocaine use grows, as they say in Alice in Wonderland, “curious and curiouser.” To outline the zigzag course of events for those trying to unpack this peculiar story — the Frenchman tested positive in March ‘09 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. His immediate reaction was utter disbelief. He swore he had never done drugs and added that he knew nobody on the circuit who did coke.
By the time of Roland Garros in late May, Gasquet started amplifying his denial and announced that he intended to appeal the case and overturn his two-year suspension. In an interview with L’Equipe, he admitted that he had violated his normally monastic training routine and gone clubbing in Miami. But he said he had had just a couple of drinks and he suspected somebody must have spiked them. Why? He couldn’t say. Who? He couldn’t guess.

Rafael Nadal rushed to Gasquet’s defense and suggested that his French friend may have kissed a cocaine user. As an excuse, that ranks up there with “the dog ate my homework” or the Twinkie Defense in Harvey Milk’s murder. It led joking reporters to observe that perhaps Gasquet had kissed Martina Hingis, who tested positive for cocaine and retired rather than fight a two-year suspension. But Gasquet refused to go away quietly like the demure Swiss. He vowed to keep battling and by Wimbledon he had discarded the spiked-drink defense and fastened on the cocaine kiss defense. Suddenly he remembered snogging a French girl, Pamela (no last name). Indeed, he kissed her more than once, he maintained. Though never identified, Pamela was said to be a cocaine user by some sources — and a good girl by others. Tennis fans held their breath, waiting for a decision on Gasquet’s appeal.

With all due respect to a player’s right to plead his case, there is for anyone who has followed tennis on a regular basis something wearyingly familiar about this scenario — a positive drug test followed by denials, impassioned appeals to the court of public opinion, as well as to the authorities, and an ever-changing defense. To escape the fog and put things in perspective, let us reflect on a Short History of Drugs in Tennis.

Stimulants have long been popular on the tour. The celebrated diva Suzanne Lenglen braced herself between sets with sips of cognac. Eventually, alcohol in industrial quantities became the drug of choice on the circuit, and hangovers, not overdoses, were the greatest danger. As described in The Romance of Wimbledon, a book by John Olliff, The Daily Telegraph’s tennis correspondent, the ‘21 quarterfinal between Zenzo Shimidzu of Japan and Randolf Lycett of Australia was a drunken fiasco. Played on a blisteringly hot day, the match was deadlocked at a set apiece and 3-3 in the third, when Lycett seemed to suffer sunstroke and had to be revived with gin. Though wobbly, Lycett won the third set, but couldn’t continue without another stimulant — champagne. Apparently, he drank a whole bottle and by the fifth set was staggering and stumbling, falling and crawling around on his hands and knees, searching for his racket. While it’s not surprising that Lycett lost, it may shock some fans to learn that the Aussie wasn’t the last player to quaff champagne on Centre Court. That dubious honor belongs to Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase, who split a bottle during a doubles match in the mid-’70s and were seen as jolly good fellows for doing so.

Inevitably, players branched out to other chemically-charged substances. But since there were no tests, users stood little chance of getting caught, and since omertà operated then just as it does now on the circuit, nobody did much more than gossip about the subject. Journalists who witnessed players doing cocaine, for instance, didn’t feel compelled to report it. My friend, Gene Scott, the late publisher of Tennis Week, always defended this practice, explaining that what a journalist saw in a social setting should remain off limits. By that logic, unless a reporter spotted someone snorting lines at a tournament, he should keep his mouth shut.

But then in September ‘80, Yannick Noah broke the silence in an interview with Rock & Folk, the French equivalent of Rolling Stone. While admitting that he smoked hashish, Noah accused other players of using cocaine. What’s more — and in his opinion what was worse — some were popping amphetamines. This infuriated him because it put clean players at a disadvantage. He lamented that they might have to use coke or amphetamines to stay competitive with drug abusers. He wanted the problem to be brought into the open and discussed. If it weren’t, Noah feared there would be deaths from overdoses.
The reaction of tennis authorities and the press was to savage Noah for smoking hashish. His remarks about coke and speed were ignored, as were the players whom he said “take the hit during a tournament and crash afterward. You have guys who have played super during one tournament and who you’ve never seen again.”

He mentioned Victor Pecci by name.

A year later, Arthur Ashe proposed that tennis start testing for drugs. During the ‘82 U.S. Open, Ashe told me that the ATP had “established a relationship with this organization called Comp-Care. Comp-Care will, for free, help you deal with your drug problems anonymously.”

At Ashe’s encouragement, I called Comp-Care to arrange an interview and was referred to Dr. Robert B. Millman, Director of the Drug and Alcohol Abuse program at Cornell University Medical College. A psychiatrist and internist, Dr. Millman said he was treating a variety of professional athletes, including an unspecified number of tennis players. When I asked whether drugs were a problem on the circuit, he answered, “Absolutely.” The money and glamour of the game, he explained, brought players into frequent contact with show biz celebs who were heavy cocaine users. Many players succumbed to peer pressure or turned to drugs to reduce stress.

Dr. Millman said that a few players used heroin, snorting it, not shooting it. He wasn’t convinced that players confined cocaine to recreational use. Though he conceded he couldn’t prove it, he had heard of players taking cocaine for a lift during matches. But for someone who wanted to improve his game dramatically, amphetamines had quicker results. As Dr. Millman put it, “Speed makes you better.” But then, “It makes you worse.”

When I published this interview in my book Short Circuit in ‘83, tennis authorities responded with an across-the-board denial and a series of personal attacks. I was physically removed from the press box at the Italian Open, roughed up and threatened by a tournament director and IMG agent. Tennis authorities dismissed this as a personal matter and took no action.

It wasn’t until the mid-’80s that tennis accepted international standards for drug testing, including out-of-competition testing and sanctions for rule-breakers. But it was too late to deal with a cluster of juiced-up stars. In various books, player memoirs and investigative articles, it has been alleged that John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitas and Pat Cash, winners of a combined total of 20 Grand Slam titles, used cocaine in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. In the early ‘90s, Karel Novacek tested positive for cocaine.

Some apologists argue that cocaine is a recreational drug, not a performance enhancer. But it’s a stimulant, and that’s why tennis banned it. Other drugs — heroin, ecstasy and a host of other party pills — are not penalized. Unlike other pro sports, tennis seems to have no interest in cracking down on non-performance-enhancing substances, which are both dangerous and illegal. That is, dangerous not just because of potential side effects, but because they force buyers to associate with criminals, opening them up to blackmail. (Think of this in relation to last year’s scandal about betting and match-fixing on the tour.)
By the time the news about cocaine use in tennis broke, the game had more powerful performance enhancers to worry about. Anabolic steroids, human growth hormones, EPO and a witch’s brew of powerful elixirs hit the black market. Aussie Open champ Czech Petr Korda tested positive, as did a gaggle of other Europeans — Stefan Koubek, Karol Beck, Filippo Volandri — and Argentineans Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Canas, Guillermo Coria and Mariano Puerta. The latter two made it to the French Open finals after serving suspensions for drug use. At Roland Garros in ‘05, Puerta had the dubious distinction of testing positive a second time and receiving a career-ending suspension.

As tennis continued to award itself a badge of merit for its drug program, Steffi Graf startled a French Open press conference in ‘94 by announcing that she had never been tested for drugs and that she suspected other women were bulking up on steroids. Subsequently, Gabriela Sabatini threatened legal action when her name kept cropping up in reports about steroid use.

Then in ‘96, Boris Becker speculated that the hyperactive Austrian Thomas Muster must be on something — and the good German got disciplined for his injudicious remarks. Sticking to its policy of punishing the messenger, tennis authorities also cracked down hard in ‘02 on Frenchman Nicholas Escude, who said, just as Noah had done 20 years earlier, that it was obvious when players were juiced. All you had to do was look at their bodies and their eyes. Moreover, Escude charged that some players had tested positive, but the ATP wasn’t revealing the results.

Dismissed at first as a pop-off with no basis for his accusations, Escude was vindicated when it was belatedly revealed that between August ‘02 and May ‘03 seven players had tested positive for nandrolone and 53 others had showed elevated traces for nandrolone or its precursors. Only one of these players was identified — Bodhan Ulirach of the Czech Republic — and he was suspended for two years.

But when a second player came before the tribunal, he argued that he had taken electrolyte replacement pills provided by ATP trainers. Submitting two dozen legal affidavits, the player contended that the electrolyte tablets must have been contaminated with nandrolone. The other players who had tested positive promptly adopted the same defense.

Normally, under the ATP’s policy of strict liability, a player is responsible for whatever is in his system. Even if he ingests a banned substance unknowingly, he is penalized — although the penalty may be reduced if there are extenuating circumstances. But in this instance, because the ATP might have supplied contaminated supplements, the burden of proof switched, and players maintained that it was up to the ATP to prove that the pills weren’t tainted.

The ATP had been offering these products at tournaments for over 20 years with no problems and no complaints. Even so, it analyzed 500 tablets that were believed to have been available at a tournament where positive or elevated tests had occurred. No contaminants were discovered. Then the ATP submitted the remaining jars in its possession for further analysis. Representative samples from these jars revealed no contamination. In short, there was never any scientific proof that the ATP electrolytes were contaminated and no evidence that the players in question had consumed them.

Yet under the legal principle of equitable estoppel, the ATP couldn’t enforce its anti-doping rules unless it was willing to undertake a ruinously expensive court action. As a consequence, Ulirach was retroactively pardoned, even though he had never previously cited electrolyte replacements as a factor in his positive test. The cases against the other six players were dropped.

By mid-May ‘03, the ATP had stopped distributing electrolyte replacements. News of this was widely disseminated in the press, and notices were posted in player locker rooms. More than two months later, however, Greg Rusedski tested positive. Invoking the same defense as previous players, he claimed that the ATP, not he, was responsible. Though there was still no proof that the electrolytes had been contaminated or that Rusedski had ever taken them, and no explanation of how Rusedski had been tainted by supplements that had already been removed from the locker room, the tribunal decreed that his case too deserved to be dismissed.
Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, called the decision “preposterous…It defies imagination.”

David Howman, Director General of WADA, pointed out, “It’s unprecedented to have a series of positive results where the individuals have been exonerated and the sport has chosen to fall on its own sword…It undermines the whole principle of the anti-doping program.”

Even the ATP was stunned. David Higdon, then VP of Media Relations, said, “To be honest, we’re surprised…He tested positive and that’s an uncontroverted fact.”

In the first months of ‘04, 16 more players showed elevated test results for nandrolone, with the same analytic fingerprint as the previous positives and elevated negatives. According to the ATP, these players hailed from a dozen different countries, and their test results occurred at tournaments at different times in different parts of the world. Since there was no question now of contaminated ATP supplements, what explained these troubling elevated scores?

No explanation has ever been forthcoming. Except for Ulirach and Rusedski, none of the other players who tested positive for performance enhancers or showed trace amounts in their systems has ever been identified. The ATP has refused to say whether these players were required to have follow-up tests. Tennis fans have no way of knowing whether the six unnamed players won tournaments, perhaps even Grand Slam titles, during the time when they tested positive.

Lest I be accused of sexual discrimination by focusing entirely on men, I should mention that Sesil Karatantcheva tested positive for steroids in ‘06. Showing the same feistiness in court as she does on court, the 15-year-old from Kazakhstan came up with an excuse that more than matched any man’s for pure chutzpah. Where Gasquet demurely fell back on the coke kiss defense, Karatantcheva went all the way and admitted she had been pregnant when she tested positive. Before she could have an abortion, she suffered a miscarriage. This, she contended, must have sparked a riot of hormones that had been mistaken for steroids.
As much as the tribunal may have sympathized with her predicament, it ruled there was no scientific basis to her argument. Now having served a two-year suspension, Karatantcheva is back on the women’s tour, but has shown nowhere near the same level that she displayed before her suspension.

But Gasquet still takes the prize, hands down. Without interviewing Pamela and pinning down the facts of the case — Did she kiss Gasquet? Did she use cocaine? — an independent anti-doping tribunal decided in July ‘09 to reduce Gasquet’s suspension to two-and-a-half months. In effect, the penalty became the time he had already been off the tour.

The ITF has now appealed Gasquet’s successful appeal and asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to re-impose the original two-year ban. What’s more, Pamela has announced that she intends to file a suit against Gasquet for slandering her reputation, violating her privacy and infuriating her boyfriend with false accusations.

Then just when it seemed that the history of drugs in tennis couldn’t get any weirder, Andre Agassi’s autobiography, Open, appeared, and in addition to revelations about this heavy drinking, it contained an extraordinary confession. Andre admits to using crystal meth, snorting it with a Vegas friend called Slim. What’s more, in ‘97, he tested positive at a tournament and was informed by the ATP that he faced public exposure and suspension. But in a series of flabbergasting moves that seem to foreshadow Gasquet’s case, Andre wrote a letter to the ATP claiming that he had mistakenly drunk one of Slim’s sodas that had been spiked with meth. The ATP accepted Agassi’s bogus plea of innocence, never asking for evidence nor apparently even questioning him or Slim. And of course the public was never told, adding credence to Escude’s accusation that players have tested positive and never been named, much less punished. This admission by Agassi raises a host of questions that his book doesn’t address. But just as clearly it raises serious questions once again about rule enforcement in tennis.

Mewshaw is the author of Short Circuit, as well as Ladies of the Court: Grace and Disgarce on the Women’s Tennis Tour

http://www.insidetennis.com/2009/10/short-history-drugs-tennis/

Pretty interesting stuff. The part about the nandrolone positives is quite damning. :eek: Was that a big deal in the early 00's or did it fly under the radar somehow? :scratch:

EDIT:

Drug testing facts:
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showpost.php?p=10349355&postcount=14

Operacion Puerto, drug testing facts and quotes from players and officials:
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showpost.php?p=10442306&postcount=26

Drug testing facts:
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showpost.php?p=10444558&postcount=40

Armstrong's doping doc has tennis links!
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=168510&page=16
 
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#2 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

A short history of drugs in tennis.
Got that right :yeah:
 
#4 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

conspiracy theories. what a ridiculous article.

some nutjob wacko comes up with insane conspiracy theories.

i bet these are the same people that belive 9/11 was an inside job or that man didnt land on the moon or some other nutjob theory.

when nadal starts winning something, these articles pop up.:eek:
 
#13 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

conspiracy theories. what a ridiculous article.

some nutjob wacko comes up with insane conspiracy theories.

i bet these are the same people that belive 9/11 was an inside job or that man didnt land on the moon or some other nutjob theory.

when nadal starts winning something, these articles pop up.:eek:
where's the conspiracy theory there?

Drug testing in tennis is a joke and until that changes there is every reason to suspect that plenty of players are juicing.


some of the article is a joke though. The author doesn't seem to know the differernce between corticosteroids and anabolics. He's talking about the former then mentions Koubek and Volandri, both of whom failed tests for the latter. There's a hell of a difference.
 
#6 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

There were more posts on this thread.
Where have they gone?
Maybe we're the ones on drugs :eek:
 
#8 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Why was my post deleted? Seriously? I'm getting fed up with this forum. Anyone who critizes the Rafa haters gets their posts deleted? WTF?!?!
 
#9 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Why was my post deleted? Seriously? I'm getting fed up with this forum. Anyone who critizes the Rafa haters gets their posts deleted? WTF?!?!
Do you latently believe that Nadal is a doper or what's the matter with you? I have never accused Rafito of cheating that way and I have started threads on doping in the past without ever taking Nadal's current status into consideration. You assuming that this is somehow a clandestine attack on Rafa only serves to reveal your own subconscious doubt and paranoia.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

1) Lots of money in tennis.

2) Basically no out-of-competition testing. It's near impossible to miss 3 tests in 18 months when there are only about 70ish total tests for top100 male singles players performed in a year, ie an average of 1.33 a week. Many of these are actually done at tournament sites also, so are totally superfluous as nobody would be using catchable substances at those times.

3) On top of that, what little OOC testing is performed is badly flawed - no EPO tests, and urine only, not blood or hair.

4) No test for HGH is performed in or out of competition.

5) EPO only tested for at 3 events a year.

6) The ATP has covered up things even when players are caught, as with Agassi and the dozens of "supplements" players.



It's thus inevitable lots of top players are juicing ..... and looking at the physiques of some, it's very obvious they are (especially the women, many of whom put East German swimming teams to shame).
 
#15 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

1) Lots of money in tennis.

2) Basically no out-of-competition testing. It's near impossible to miss 3 tests in 18 months when there are only about 70ish total tests for top100 male singles players performed in a year, ie an average of 1.33 a week. Many of these are actually done at tournament sites also, so are totally superfluous as nobody would be using catchable substances at those times.

3) On top of that, what little OOC testing is performed is badly flawed - no EPO tests, and urine only, not blood or hair.

4) No test for HGH is performed in or out of competition.

5) EPO only tested for at 3 events a year.

6) The ATP has covered up things even when players are caught, as with Agassi and the dozens of "supplements" players.



It's thus inevitable lots of top players are juicing ..... and looking at the physiques of some, it's very obvious they are (especially the women, many of whom put East German swimming teams to shame).
This and anyone knows the testing is a joke.
 
#16 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Short when compared to James Joyce's Ulysses, yes.
 
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#22 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

No mention of Mats Wilander testing positive for cocaine at the 95 french open?
Was about to ask ... i remember he and Karel Novacek (former top10 player) were involved in drug scandal
 
This post has been deleted
#24 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Not sure why this would surprise anyone. All sports have steroid problems, especially an international sport like tennis where players from less "honorable" countries think nothing of sharing the juice to their countrymen.

Sports like baseball, cycling, running have had steroid controversies affect the very top players, surely tennis is no different and the ATP won't investigate. Players getting stronger in all sports at around the same time is no coincidence, and it's even more obvious in tennis where finesse and technical skill have been replaced by pure power and athleticism, which has now conquered all 4 slams.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

I have compiled (read: stolen a compilation) of quotes from players and officials on the subject of doping.

John McEnroe in 1992:

“You can tell when someone has been on steroids,” he said… “A guy bulks up, has a new body and never gets tired.”
He said athletes on steroids heal more quickly after an injury, recover faster after grueling matches and work much harder during training.

“You see these guys or girls who come onto the tour talking about their new training programs and their diets where they eat this or that new thing…but they’ll never tell you about the drugs they took."
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...nN8VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4hIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5751,254816

Mahesh Bhupati:

“The tennis players themselves have brought it (anti-doping rules) upon themselves. A lot of players have been cheating. The players have to cooperate to weed out instances of cheating from sports,”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/players-to-blame-for-new-dope-rules-says-bh/423468/

Andrew Ilie:

"The problem is so bad that you might as well just let them use it and when players see people dying on court and exploding, then it's going to change their minds.

The sport has become so competitive and powerful it is just a matter of fitness and who will outlast who out there.

People are just happy to sacrifice their health for three years of fame."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/australian_open/2003/2661895.stm

"The chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, John Mendoza, said tennis was approaching a similar crisis that swimming faced at the farcical 1994 Rome world championships and that cycling encountered before the Tour de France drug busts in 1997.

"Players can use short-acting steroids in combination with human growth hormone which will produce muscle mass and enormous power, and while they can stop just before a competition and test clean, they still get the performance benefit of the drugs," Mendoza said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/11/1026185087993.html

"Only someone in denial would think women's tennis is clean," Mendoza said.

"The physiques are bizarre, like the Chinese swimmers were. What we saw in swimming with the Chinese is akin to what we're seeing in tennis. You do not become like that by working out in the gym."

Mendoza did not accuse any specific players but said tennis – both men's and women's – faced a potential drug problem as significant as cycling before the sport began a systematic testing regime to clean up the doping culture after 1997.

"What happened with both of those sports (swimming and cycling) was that they refused to implement an effective out-of-competition testing program," he said.

"FINA was forced to move and has got on top of the problem while cycling is getting there but still needs to improve."

Cycling's premier road event, the Tour de France, was rocked by one of the biggest doping scandals ever in 1998 with the entire Festina team thrown off the Tour, some of its riders banned and its director and a medical team member copping suspended jail sentences.

Italy's best three riders, Marco Pantani, Stefano Garzelli and Gilberto Simoni, have since been banned from cycling in subsequent doping scandals.

There have been 10 Chinese swimmers, including Yuan Yuan who was caught before the 1998 World Championships in Perth and banned for four years for trafficking human growth hormone, and one Chinese swim coach banned for doping offences since 1993.

International Tennis Federation (ITF) executive director Debbie Jevans said 700 tennis players were tested last year, with top male players tested on average seven times.

ITF spends $1 million on drug tests each year with 8000 tests carried out for just seven positives over the past seven years when anti-doping screens were first introduced to the sport, Jevans said.

The ITF also announced at Wimbledon they were likely to introduce blood screening for the endurance-boosting drug EPO before the Australian Open in January.

But last year only 50 of the 700 tests were out-of-competition screens, and none of those 50 were on female tennis players.

Mendoza said the large numbers of tests did not prove doping was not rife.

Tests would not stop doping if the screens were done during competition or by giving the athlete plenty of warning.

"Tennis is being dominated by a group of women who are not what they appear to be. They are not real," he said.

"The signs of substance abuse among leading players are self evident. The dynamics of the game have changed. Tennis officials are refusing to accept they have a problem."
http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=31374 (the original Daily Telegraph link doesn't work)

Mendoza was widely condemned by tennis authorities for daring to speak out about his concerns. He warned in 2002 that tennis officials were living in a "fool's paradise" if they did not recognise a major problem in their sport. "Tennis is heavily under the influence of doping and they are in denial if they don't accept that," he said. In response, International Tennis Federation executive director Debbie Jevans accused Mendoza of making "broad-brush statements without any evidence".
Mendoza was not at all surprised yesterday to hear of Agassi's admission. "I didn't say it (in 2002) just because I felt like a bit of notoriety. I said it because there was so much evidence from within the sport that things were right off the rails. "I had been hearing from 1997 that they (ITF and ATP) were burying results, and the WTA wasn't testing at all." He said there was rampant speculation at the time that Agassi was using drugs."Agassi was viewed by his peers as a user,"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26278467-5010361,00.html

Nicolas Escudé:

"To say that tennis today is clean you have to be living in a dream world.

When you're playing on clay and after 50 shots the guy on the other side of the net is fresh and waiting for you to serve, while you're in agony, it's mind-blowing."

Escude slammed Miles for his passive attitude towards doping, and branded measures taken against those caught as ridiculous.

"What I don't understand is that, if a company's accounts show bad results, the boss is always the first one to get fired," he said.

"So when I hear today that Mark Miles is untouchable, I begin to wonder."

And he claimed that the top tennis players were keeping a lid on the problem because the ATP has dossiers on them.

"The problem is that the ATP is lead by Americans, while 85 percent of players are Europeans and the money comes from Europe," he said.

"It's a mafia that's in place. If these dossiers were exposed, tennis would be in a bad state for six months. But out of the bad would come some good."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/2027664.stm

Nathalie Tauziat:

"I won't name individuals," she said, "but it's clear that doping exists in tennis and needs to be stopped. I have no hard evidence, but all I will say is that you don't have to have a degree in medicine to see that some of the players have transformed themselves almost overnight. It's time people stopped taking us for a bunch of fools. I don't care how much training or gym work you do, there is no way anyone can suddenly become stronger and faster in the space of a couple of months. How is it that some girls disappear for a few weeks, and then return looking totally different?"

"We also need more blood- testing if we are to get to the bottom of this growing problem. I'm particularly concerned for the younger players. They're often the victims of unscrupulous people, who try to sell products which allow them to recuperate more quickly. It must stop."
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...calls--for-action-on--drug-cheats-675364.html

Jim Courier:

"EPO is the problem," Jim Courier told Newsweek in 1999, referring to erythropoietin, a blood-boosting drug that became ubiquitous in cycling in the 1990s. "I have pretty strong suspicions that guys are using it on the tour. I see guys who are out there week in and week out without taking rests. EPO can help you when it's the fifth set and you've been playing for four-and-a-half hours."
http://www.newsweek.com/1999/02/14/the-real-scandal.html

Operacion Puerto

When the major doping scandal Operacion Puerto broke there were a lot of rumours of the involvement of tennis players...

Background:

"The Operación Puerto doping case (Operation Mountain Pass)[1] is a Spanish doping case against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices, started in May 2006. He is accused of administering prohibited doping products to 200 professional athletes, to enhance their performance."

"Spanish police raided residences. In one, belonging to Fuentes, they found a thousand doses of anabolic steroids, 100 packets of blood products, and machines to manipulate and transfuse them."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operación_Puerto_doping_case

...this was also claimed by the doping doctor Fuentes himself, as well as others close to the investigation.

¿Sus clientes o pacientes sólo son ciclistas o también ha tratado a deportistas de otras especialidades?
Fuentes: He tratado deportistas de muchas especialidades: ciclistas, tenistas, atletas, futbolistas.... Veinticinco años de profesión dan cabida para mucho.

¿En qué porcentaje ha tratado a ciclistas respecto a otros deportistas?
Fuentes: Es difícil saberlo... Pero pongamos que ha habido un 30 por ciento de ciclistas, un 20 de tenistas, otro 20 de futbolistas y el 30 por ciento restante pertenecían a deportes varios.

Are your clients or patients only cyclists or have you also treated athletes from other sports?
Fuentes: "I've treated athletes from many sports: cyclists, tennis players, athletes (track & field), footballers .... Twenty-five years of work make room for a lot."

What percentage of those treated were cyclists and other athletes respectively?
Fuentes: "It's hard to say ... But let's say there has been 30 percent cyclists, 20 percent tennis players, another 20 percent football players and 30 percent belonged to other sports."
http://www.lasprovincias.es/alicante/pg060710/prensa/noticias/Deportes/200607/10/VAL-DEP-232.html

"Me indigna la filtración selectiva."

"I am outraged by the selective filtration."

"Sólo han salido nombres de ciclistas... como ayuda a la recuperación, a futbolistas, tenistas o atletas".

Only names of cyclists were leaked, but he also treated footballers, tennis players and (track & field) athletes.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/depo...va/elpepidep/20060705elpepidep_23/Tes?print=1

Im WDR spricht Pat McQuaid, Präsident des Rad-Weltverbandes UCI, davon, dass er im Jahr 2006 in Anwesenheit von Ermittlungsbehörden und des spanischen Sportministers die Auskunft erhielt, dass auch andere Sportarten betroffen wären: Schwimmen, Rudern, Tennis und Fußball.

Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI Road World Federation, told WDR that he received in 2006, in the presence of investigative authorities and the Spanish sports minister (note: Jaime Lissavetzky, who publically claimed that only cyclist were involved.), information that other sports would be affected: swimming, rowing, tennis and football.
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/default.aspx?tabID=4913&alias=sport&cob=519213

Fuentes has most likely been up to no good since the 80's, or at least the 90's.

"The wife of the doctor at the center of Spain's biggest doping investigation says Spanish sports would be ruined if she revealed what she knows about drug use among athletes.

"I know what happened at Barcelona '92 and I'm a Pandora's Box that, if opened one day, could bring down sport,"
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3712847

"The first case of performance enhancement to which Fuentes has been linked was a family affair. It happened in the mid-1980s, and the athlete in question was Cristina Pérez, Fuentes's wife.

A few years later, Fuentes, after developing contacts to the cycling scene, became team physician for various profession teams, ultimately even becoming their training and competition strategist. The physician never seemed to be bothered by persistent rumors of his involvement in doping activities. "I was always under suspicion," he says, "but nothing ever happened."

The more successful his riders became, the safer and more confident Fuentes felt. Before a difficult individual time trial in the 1991 Tour of Spain, or Vuelta, the doctor was sitting on a plane bound for the Spanish Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Fuentes told journalists also traveling on the flight that the cooler on the seat next to him contained "the key to victory in the Vuelta." His comments proved to be true, when a pro on the team sponsored by Fuentes's employer at the time, Once, won not only the difficult time trial but also the overall tour.

A paradise for performance enhancement

Besides, until now there has been very little public pressure in Spain to prosecute those involved in performance enhancement. Even El País, an investigative newspaper that now leads the pack in reporting on "Operation Mountain Pass," was long averse to even addressing the topic.

This atmosphere allowed Spain to develop into a paradise for athletes interested in performance enhancement. The first reports about compliant doctors and well-equipped laboratories began making the rounds in the track and field world in the late 1990s. The suspicion that a network had developed in this environment was confirmed last year when the police staged a spectacular coup against the drug cartel. In a series of raids on the Spanish mainland, as well as on the Canary and Balearic Islands, police secured 10 tons of illegal doping products."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,425939-2,00.html

Note that the article below, an interview with Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, is from 1985.

"Los atletas españoles reciben ayuda médica para mejorar sus resultados" (Spanish athletes receive medical help to improve performance):
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/depo...resultados/elpepidep/19850214elpepidep_11/Tes

The handling of the affair has been criticised by WADA among others. Sadly, it appears as though a proper investigation will never take place.

"Wahrscheinlich könnte man schon ermitteln, welche Sportler bei Fuentes gedopt haben. Aber da dies für das Strafrecht nicht relevant ist, wurden diese Ermittlungen nicht durchgeführt. Und deshalb werden mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit in dem Verfahren gegen Fuentes auch keine neuen Sportlernamen oder Sportarten auftauche", erklärte der für den Fall Fuentes zuständige Madrider Oberstaatsanwalt Eduardo Esteban"

- One could probably find out which athletes were doped by Fuentes but this is not relevant for the law.

"Wenn das Urteil endgültig ist, nach einer möglichen Berufung, dann ist es wahrscheinlich, dass am Ende die Blutbeutel und Beweise zerstört werden", sagte der zuständige Revisionsrichter am Oberlandesgericht Madrid, Arturo Beltran,"

- The evidence is likely to be destroyed.
http://www.focus.de/sport/mehrsport...zt-fuentes-droht-zu-versanden_aid_555979.html

Drug testing in tennis

Tennis players have only been required to report their whereabouts in season since 2009. Before that it was limited to the off-season (i.e december).

2009 testing statistics

In-Competition
Urine: 1749
Blood: 157 - Only done at slams (one at each for top players).
EPO: 21 - 4 at Roland Garros, 15 at Wimbledon (green clay? :scratch:), 2 at the US Open.

Out-of-Competition
Urine: 154 - At least 61 of these so called "out"-of-competition tests were actually carried out at tournaments. An additional 49 missions resulted in "no sample being collected". No player was tested more than twice (and even that is a rarity).
Blood: 0
EPO: 0

As you can see, there are very few blood and EPO tests, no blood or EPO tests done OOC and very few OOC tests altogether.

I will leave it to Victor Conte of BALCO fame to explain why this is a big problem.

It is important to understand that it is not really necessary for athletes to have access to designer anabolic steroids such as THG. They can simply use fast acting testosterone (oral as well as creams and gels) and still easily avoid the testers. For example, oral testosterone will clear the system in less than a week and testosterone creams and gels will clear even faster.

Many drug tested athletes use what I call the “duck and dodge” technique. Several journalists in the UK have recently referred to it as the “duck and dive” technique. This is basically how it works.

First, the athlete repeatedly calls their own cell phone until the message capacity is full. This way the athlete can claim to the testers that they didn’t get a message when they finally decide to make themselves available. Secondly, they provide incorrect information on their whereabouts form. They say they are going to one place and then go to another. Thereafter, they start using testosterone, growth hormone and other drugs for a short cycle of two to three weeks.

After the athlete discontinues using the drugs for a few days and they know that they will test clean, they become available and resume training at their regular facility.

Most athletes are tested approximately two times each year on a random out-of -competition basis. If a tester shows up and the athlete is not where they are supposed to be, then the athlete will receive a “missed test.” This is the equivalent to receiving “strike one” when up to bat in a baseball game. The current anti-doping rules allow an athlete to have two missed tests in any given eighteen month period without a penalty or consequence. So, the disadvantage for an athlete having a missed test is that they have one strike against them. The advantage of that missed test is that the athlete has now received the benefit of a cycle of steroids. Long story short, an athlete can continue to duck and dive until they have two missed tests, which basically means that they can continue to use drugs until that time.
EPO becomes undetectable about seventy-two hours after subcutaneous injection (stomach) and only twenty-four hours after intraveneous injection.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/athletics/article3941984.ece

"What people fail to understand is that by increasing production of red blood cells you are transporting more oxygen to the muscles and you are also removing carbon dioxide, ammonia and lactic acid, all the byproducts of exercise. EPO is a recovery drug. It's a training drug."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2009/05/06/sp-wada-fifa.html

What people don't understand, and we'll talk specifically about anabolic steroids, now, is that you perform far better when you're a couple of weeks off of steroids than you do when you're on steroids. The reason is that steroids work through a process called 'Cell-voluminaztion.' So it makes you pumped, and you give yourself more nutrients and fluids inside of the cells. And it helps you to grow and it helps you to become stronger, but it also makes you tight. You lack in flexibility and speed. If you taper off of steroids for two weeks, you can regain a normal water balance and you are faster and more powerful than ever.
http://redirectingat.com/?id=92X588...cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=10589&page=2

The ITF refuses (refused?) to test for banned erythropoietic-stimulating agent, CERA.

LA CERA NON RECHERCHEE A ROLAND GARROS
Cyclismag.com - 25 mai 2009
La CERA, EPO troisième génération, ne sera pas recherchée pendant Roland Garros. Selon la fédération internationale
de tennis (ITF), elle n'est pas utilisée dans ce sport. L'Agence française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD) souhaitait
pourtant la rechercher durant la quinzaine parisienne. Pierre Bordry, président de l'AFLD, n'a pas souhaité commenté
cette décision. "La collaboration avec l'ITF est très claire et donne satisfaction" a-t-il tout de même déclaré.

CERA, the third-generation EPO, won't be searched for at Roland-Garros. According to the International Tennis Federation (ITF), it is not in use in this sport. The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) wanted to test for it during the two weeks in Paris. Pierre Bordry, the president of the AFLD, did not want to comment this decision. He said however that "The collaboration with the ITF is very clear and satisfies us".
http://services.poissonbouge.net/cl.../docs/a15654fb-0cdd-4720-7b5fd3da1b22be1e.pdf
 
#85 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

I think it says all we need to know that this article is 8 years old and as of now, not much has really improved as regards testing standards. I find it incredible that you can have names like McEnroe, Agassi, Wilander, and other Slam winners like Korda and successful top 10ers like Coria, Rusedski and Canas embroiled in drug scandals and still not have too much buzz surrounding it all. I am yet to come across any reactions to McEnroe's story, and all the oohing and aahing following the revelations in Agassi's book has yielded precious little. That a test back in the stone age of around 1999 came out positive (and was shamefully suppressed) while nothing is uncovered in these days when the game is getting impossibly powerful and physical, is simply mind-boggling.

It has been said over and over that in-competition testing is pointless. They should test every player in the top 100 a dozen times OOC and pick the times randomly. Surely the expenses aren't the problem, what with prize money increasing every year.
 
#29 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Testing a joke? You're out of your mind. Imagine having to explain every day of your life where you are or intend to be so you could be tested (even in your vacations). It's CRAZY. These guys are human, some tend to forget.

Another interesting article on the subject I posted in the non-tennis section:

Murray's drug fear a sign of the times
Richard Evans



Updated Oct 14, 2010 11:32 AM ET

“I’d rather be feeling sick for a few more days than risk failing a drugs test.”

In one quick quote in Shanghai, Andy Murray lifted the lid a little, first of all on the seemingly inexplicable losses he has suffered recently at the U.S. Open and Beijing and, secondly, on the prevailing attitude in the ATP locker room towards drugs.

Quite clearly that attitude is laced with fear. Last year, the International Tennis Federation, which runs the tennis drugs program in conjunction with the ATP, conducted 2,126 tests on men and women players at a cost of $1.5 million. To take one case, Roger Federer was tested 17 times, one of them out of competition.

Murray, who slumped to defeat in lethargic fashion to Stan Wawrinka at the U.S. Open and hardly put up a fight against Ivan Ljubicic while losing in straight sets in Beijing, admitted that he had been feeling unwell for some weeks.

“I had a really bad throat and a sore head and had no energy,” he said after beating the Chinese wild card, Bai Yan, 6-2, 6-2 in his first match at the ATP Masters Series tournament in Shanghai. “But I feel much better now.”

Murray, a canny Scot, obviously has no intention of taking the slightest risk as he attempts to get his year back on track and qualify for the ATP World Finals in London next month. And, as incidents in the past have shown, there is a risk, especially in seeking medicines in places like China where Murray has been for more than two weeks.

The ATP gives the players a card listing all the banned substances — which can include regular cold remedies — and, according to an ATP spokesman, most players give it to their own doctor at home so that they can check back with the physician while on the road.

“None of our physios give out medicine of any kind,” said the spokesman, Nicola Arzani. “Only the tournament doctor can do that and, of course, he knows exactly what is permissible.”

But, as Bill Norris, the much respected physio who worked on the ATP tour for forty years, points out, there is a still a grey line.

“A drug that is OK in one country may have been made with a different base in China or elsewhere,” Norris told me. “So Murray was right to be prudent.”

The tough but accepted rule is that a player is solely responsible for what gets into his or her body, even if he has been given a drug by a medical practitioner.

“We had several cases of drug abuse amongst South American players and it was clear, in some cases, that their doctors did not know what they were doing,” says Norris.

Even allowing for the fact that some of those players who ended up being banned — like Mariano Puerto and Guillermo Canas — may or may not have been quite so naïve, there is no question that the severe suspensions handed down struck fear into the players.

I remember Alberto Mancini, who was Argentina's Davis Cup captain at the time, complaining that he could not get one of his injured players to take as much as an aspirin. “He is scared to death of getting tested positive now,” said Mancini.

While respecting the need to have strict rules, there are those who feel WADA's unbending regulations go too far. Having players refuse necessary treatment because they are afraid of career-threatening consequences cannot be right.

Nor it is reasonable to demand that players give the authorities one hour of each day of their lives during which they can be tested — in or out of competition. Tennis players are constantly travelling and have no clue where they will be on a given day. Yes, Murray or Federer knew well in advance that they would be in Shanghai this week. But for how long? If one of them lost early, they would have been gone by Tuesday or Wednesday. If they make the final, they will be there on Sunday.

The chances of contracting some serious disease amongst a bunch of athletes who fly long distances on a constant basis and live cheek-by-jowl in crowded locker rooms is considerable. Federer caught a relatively light dose of mononucleosis two years ago and recovered. Sadly, the fine Croatian player, Mario Ancic does not seem to have been so lucky. His mono has returned three times and it may have finished his career. Andy Roddick has suffered from a debilitating virus this year and now Murray has had his form affected, too.

These players must get help when they need it. The fear factor is a good deterrent up to a point but the authorities need to balance their zealous search for the cheats with an understanding of what it’s like to live on the road, with different doctors and pharmacists to deal with every week. It takes more than an apple a day to keep these guys healthy.
__________________
 
#30 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Testing a joke? You're out of your mind. Imagine having to explain every day of your life where you are or intend to be so you could be tested (even in your vacations).

As above: this is easy to beat, just give false whereabouts when you're doping. The number of out of competition tests is so miniscule it's impossible to get sanctioned.
 
#31 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

:lol: People trying to deny it that tennis doesn't have a drugs issue. Having to report their whereabouts is nothing. Look at the testing system and any doctor who has a little bit of knowledge about drugs would be able to get around it. Why do you think cycling have biological passports now? To see how good tennis' drug testing system is just look at the recent example of Odesnik. If it wasn't for some airport inspector Odesnik would have been playing week in week out juiced on HGH.
 
#32 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Agree with JMF, good post as often. :yeah:

The most appalling decision by the ITF is, I think, rejecting the AFLD's proposal to CERA testing at RG, on the ground that CERA was not used in tennis. :lol:


Also glad to see Courier's comment. I didn't know he said that. Wasn't a fan of but I've also wondered if his quick decline and decision to stop his career so suddenly was not linked to ...


I'm tranlating here the comments made by Chris Rochus after the AO 2002, because on the other thread, people seem to be more concerned with the fixing matter:

Cheating exists. I think there is dope in tennis. Not just in track & field and cycling. I think one tennis player out of 10 is a doper. I'm playing tennis. I know what we could do with training. Players have limits and I see players who have no limits. Some players may take EPO to play 3 or 4 hour matches back to back and 7 hour training sessions. Players of my standard think the same but we have no proof. The ATP should have better testing, blood testing.
http://www.liberation.fr/sports/0101400695-dopage-le-doute-enfle-pas-les-chiffres
 
#33 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Very interesting thread indeed and some excellent contributions here by posters :yeah:

Michael Mewshaw is an excellent journalist and author, I have his book Ladies of the Court which I bought some years back.

Its quite clear Tennis has had a problem for some time.

But as usual its always down to money. The season is too long and the ATP have done nothing to address that . For instance, they have all of these big tournaments in Asia so soon after the US Open (for monetary reasons of course). And as usual the season finishes in December with the Davis cup final and starts on December 31st.

Thats quite shameful in my opinion but the ATP doesn't seem to be ashamed at all. The ATP should end the season at the end of October by the very latest which includes getting the Davis Cup final done. More tournaments need to be taken off the calender.

This wouldn't eleiminate the drugs problem but top players who want to stay clean will have more time to recover and will have a proper break at the end of the season before resuming training for the next season.
 
#34 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Very interesting thread indeed and some excellent contributions here by posters :yeah:

Michael Mewshaw is an excellent journalist and author, I have his book Ladies of the Court which I bought some years back.

Its quite clear Tennis has had a problem for some time.

But as usual its always down to money. The season is too long and the ATP have done nothing to address that . For instance, they have all of these big tournaments in Asia so soon after the US Open (for monetary reasons of course). And as usual the season finishes in December with the Davis cup final and starts on December 31st.

Thats quite shameful in my opinion but the ATP doesn't seem to be ashamed at all. The ATP should end the season at the end of October by the very latest which includes getting the Davis Cup final done. More tournaments need to be taken off the calender.

This wouldn't eleiminate the drugs problem but top players who want to stay clean will have more time to recover and will have a proper break at the end of the season before resuming training for the next season.
Removing tournaments from the calender is easier said then done. Maybe they need to do what the PGA tour did with their 'fall series'. None of the top ranked players are out there but it does allow for lower ranked players to earn $$$ and pick up ranking points.
 
#36 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

There is talk of reducing the season by 2 - 3 weeks from 2012, they are trying to thrash out the 2012 calendar now - but we've heard all this before, and they don't want to lose tournaments so it's hard to see how it could happen.
 
#37 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

There is talk of reducing the season by 2 - 3 weeks from 2012, they are trying to thrash out the 2012 calendar now - but we've heard all this before, and they don't want to lose tournaments so it's hard to see how it could happen.
Why can't they just end the season earlier for the top ranked guys but still keep events on the calendar for lower ranked guys who still want to play and earn some $$ and ranking points? Don't know how they can keep all the tournaments they have plus DC and end the season 2-3 weeks earlier. But there are probably guys who don't go deep week in and week out or who are coming of injury who would like to be able to still play late in the year.
 
#38 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Forgive me for my poor knowledge on the subject, but is EPO where they replace the individuals blood with more oxygenated blood?
 
#44 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Until there is legitimate testing on all forms of PEDs and the ones players in all sports these day generally use, then players will continue to use PEDs. As of right now a lot of PEDs are simply undetectable and are also easily flushed from the system. Obviously the inconsistent and lackadaisical schedules of testing will only enhance the chances of players taking advantage and doping and getting away with it. Anyone who says doping isn't a major issue in sports in general is really blind, and it's likely never going to go away until someone has the balls to really address and investigate the situation, which I don't see happening.
 
#46 ·
Christophe Rochus on doping in tennis: "There is a lot of cheating"

Sorry if it's already been posted.

Christophe Rochus fires parting shot on doping

Reported on October 31, 2010

In an interview with Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure, the retiring Christophe Rochus has said he believes doping takes place in tennis and that he "would not be against" the legalization of performance-enhancing drugs.

"There's a lot of cheating. Simply, people don't like to talk about it," he said. "I simply would like to stop the pretending. This hypocrisy is exasperating."

Rochus, who said he received a warning letter from the ATP after speaking out on the issue in the past, estimated he received 10-15 tests a year for ten years under the anti-doping program but believed some players managed to evade the system.

"I've seen things like everyone else. For me, it's inconceivable to play for five hours in the sun and come back like a rabbit the next day," he said. "I remember a match against a guy whose name I will not say. I won the first set 6-1, very easily. He went to the bathroom and came back metamorphosized. He led 5-3 in the second set and when I came back to 5-5... his nose began bleeding. I told myself it was all very strange."

Asked whether he was open to allowing the use of performance-enhancing drugs, Rochus said, "I would not be against it. Anyway, it exists.

"People who take these There's type of products know very well they take risks with their health. But they take it knowing because it could let them make a living for their entire family.

"There's the case of Canas, for example. I can cite his name because he has been caught twice, so one can assume he was doping. [Editor's note: Canas has received one anti-doping suspension under the ani-doping program. Mariano Puerta is the only tennis player to have received two suspensions.] In the end, he sacrified to make a living for for multiple generations of his family. His cause was almost noble."

Rochus also addressed past speculation that some sort of doping suspension was behind Justine Henin's sudden retirement in May 2008, from which she returned approximately 18 months. A standard doping suspension is two years.

"I heard [the rumours] like you," he said. All I can say is, I found it surprising, her sudden stop without apparent reason. Usually, champions like this announce several months in advance and do a sort of farewell tour."

Over the course of a three-part interview, Rochus also reflected on his career and companred the men's and women's game, saying depth and difficulty are far higher on the men's tour.
http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/ticker.aspx?articleid=8532&zoneid=6
 
#77 ·
Re: Christophe Rochus on doping in tennis: "There is a lot of cheating"

"Rochus, who said he received a warning letter from the ATP after speaking out on the issue in the past"

This is by far the most disturbing part (since the rest is just speculation). Dare to voice concerns about the integrity of the sport and the ATP sends you a warning? Disgusting! :(
 
#47 ·
Re: Christophe Rochus on doping in tennis: "There is a lot of cheating"

Doping and fixing, like the ATP give a shit.
 
#52 ·
Re: A short history of drugs in tennis

Should be easy enough to figure out who Rochus is talking about, narrowed it down to only 6 possibles....


ps anyone else amused by Rochus getting moralistic about cheating? :)
I narrowed it down to 1.:angel:
 
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