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

588K 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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#2,189 ·
Re: Austrian tennis player D. Koellerer and Belgian C. Rochus accuse Nadal for dopin

Whilst it's stupid to basically point the finger of guilt at the man, it's also naive to say 'he's clean, you haters are all bitter, wa wa wee wa'

This also applies to pretty much any of the top players too.
 
#2,190 · (Edited)
Re: Austrian tennis player D. Koellerer and Belgian C. Rochus accuse Nadal for dopin

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2508656

Nadal's been accused of doping since he was 19/20 but nothing serious has been done. He's won 11/12 more slams since then. He's too big of a name and nothing will ever be done since tennis is a bigger sport than cycling.

Why? Because he is not the only big name rumored to be doping.:eek:


http://www.vanguardia.com/deportes/tenis/219246-insinuan-supuesto-dopaje-de-nadal-djokovic-y-federer

El campeón juvenil de Wimbledon 2013 en la categoría junior, Gianluigi Quinzi, acusó de doping a los "cuatro grandes" del tenis profesional.

En una entrevista con La Gazzetta dello Sport el joven de 17 años se refirió a Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic y Andy Murray como sospechosos de usar sustancias prohibidas y criticó que el trato que se les da a los tenistas varíe de acuerdo a la jerarquía.
Only the irrelevant players like Troicki, Cilic, etc. are punished.
 
#2,192 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Why do you think Dani was banned, something unheard of in the sport? Because he refused and refuses to play by the unspoken rules of the ATP. You let the guys who are supposed to win win, you say to the media what you're supposed to say, and you turn a blind eye to the corruption at all levels of the sport and maybe you'll get a 250 or even 500 title if you show extra loyalty.

He's one of the few people I actually would listen to on this issue since he has nothing to lose and insider information on the sport. The irony is if he posted here he would be banned even though he's a player and not some Nadull fangirl.
 
#2,195 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Why do you think Dani was banned, something unheard of in the sport? Because he refused and refuses to play by the unspoken rules of the ATP. You let the guys who are supposed to win win, you say to the media what you're supposed to say, and you turn a blind eye to the corruption at all levels of the sport and maybe you'll get a 250 or even 500 title if you show extra loyalty.

He's one of the few people I actually would listen to on this issue since he has nothing to lose and insider information on the sport. The irony is if he posted here he would be banned even though he's a player and not some Nadull fangirl.
As if anyone needed more proof of your lunacy...Kollerer is your unimpeachable source.

It's not like Kollerer has an axe to grind against the ATP or more successful players.

No, that's just too logical for your hate filled mind.

Hate to break it to you: the other most successful player of these past 10 years had incredible stamina and great defense too. In fact, I rarely saw him sweat even after tough rallies.

His name is Federer.
 
#2,193 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Here is the english article.


http://english.gazzetta.it/More_spo...oes-nole-recover-so-quickly-20850118135.shtml

Quinzi and doping in the sport
“How does Nole recover so quickly?”

Milano, 26 July 2013
The winner of the Wimbledon Junior Championships: “Nadal and Federer are never caught, while another 30-40 others in the world are. I’m not saying they use substances, I don’t know. But it’s easy to jump to conclusions”

Tennis

He’s only recently been commended by Novak Djokovic, who was full of praise for him and his ability after watching him win the Junior title at Wimbledon. Gianluigi Quinzi has “repaid” the praise from the World No.1 by making comments that, we can be sure, will not please the Serbian tennis player. “Doping in tennis? When you see players such as Djokovic play 5 long sets and then walk back onto the court the next day and play with the same intensity as the day before, it’s difficult to not think the worst,” the 17-year-old rising star of Italian tennis told Mediaset. “I’m not saying that Nole or certain other tennis stars make use of doping. I don’t know. But you do start to question things when you see certain recoveries.”

FEDERER AND NADAL — The youngster also made reference to 2 other top tennis players: “Just look at Nadal and Federer. I never see them getting caught, while some 30-40 around the world are. I believe that on the tennis circuit everyone has to be treated in the same way when it comes to doping. Even if your name is Nadal or Federer. If they have to pull them up, then they have to pull them up. It’s not as if it would be the end of tennis were they to be pulled up. I don’t know whether they or anyone else make use of doping, but in my opinion everyone has to be treated the same way.”

Training — It’s unlikely that Quinzi is out to label the biggest stars in tennis as “cheats” or expose them, but his comments will certainly not go unnoticed, especially as they are on such a sensitive subject. And especially following the suspension of another Serbian tennis player, Troicki, for failing to comply fully with anti-doping tests. [Troicki has been banned for 18 months for failing to provide a blood sample during a mandatory drugs test – Ed] Meanwhile, Quinzi spoke about his own training regime: “I train 7 hours a day. 2 hours playing tennis in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon followed by 3 hours in the gym. It’s not something I particularly like, but it needs to be done if you want to rise to the top as a tennis player.”
Gasport© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA
 
#2,201 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

The truth is these big names all dope but they will never be outed because tennis is way bigger than cycling. It's been happening for decades. The Troicki's and Cilic's will always pay the price not the top players...
 
#2,208 · (Edited)
Re: Austrian tennis player D. Koellerer accuse Nadal for doping

The truth is these big names all dope but they will never be outed because tennis is way bigger than cycling. It's been happening for decades. The Troicki's and Cilic's will always pay the price not the top players...
Cycling is just about extreme athleticism and pure endurance. I can ride a bicycle so well as any professional cyclist, only thing I had not their endurance. But I just can't play tennis like Federer even if I take 200 doses of EPO and three types of steroids for lunch every day. If I play against him would be a 6-0 6-0 for him every match even I was on PEDs and he was clean as a baby. And this is especially true in the matches played in 3 sets, where stamina is even less important in the final outcome than tennis expertise.

About Nadal, curiously he is undisputed king of Masters 1000. Why on earth professional players had had not the enough stamina to play only two fucking sets and beat him even they weren't dopers? I can't understand that.

Are you seriously comparing a player who plays on the baseline and shortens 90% of the rallies with another who returns from the stands moonballs/weak shots being ready to chase every ball and whose game consists of minimizing the errors? Federer's game is/was effortless and effective vs 98% of the tour and there was nothing unhuman about it.
Effortlesserer is pretty much a baseliner too, man. He is the second most successful player in slow courts since 10 years ago. If he can play at his level is because, between other reasons, he can move fucking quick in a court of tennis and play top defense. Just when he couldn't his results dropped dramatically.
 
#2,219 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Can we close this thread and just have a stickied post that says: "your favourite player(s) have probably doped at one point or another" :yawn:
I think you mean "everyone has probably doped at one point or another, except for your favourite, who has natural ability and whose conditioning is a result of hard work.

Almost everyone can agree to that. :D
 
#2,221 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Djokovic was flying tonight.. just sayin'.
Is there a new improved version of the egg?
 
#2,223 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

btw what happened to these UCI bosses that covered up Armstrong's tests? are they still in charge or got fired?

these Agassi's ATP people are probably old and retired already... but I'm curious what happened in Armstrong case, and I missed that point. It's the major humiliation of the people in charge in cycling.
 
#2,224 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

btw what happened to these UCI bosses that covered up Armstrong's tests? are they still in charge or got fired?

these Agassi's ATP people are probably old and retired already... but I'm curious what happened in Armstrong case, and I missed that point. It's the major humiliation of the people in charge in cycling.
Yes, that's the much more interesting question.

People often refer back to things that happened years ago as proof that is happening now. I don't particularly buy that theory. I know people say history repeats itself, and that does happen, but we're not still living in huts with feudal over-lords. Some things progress.

It would be interesting to find out why those mistakes were made in the past. In Agassi's case, was it plain naivety, rather than corruption? If so, and in light of everything that has happened since then, I should think today's officials are a bit more savvy. In Armstrong's case, it's hard to treat it as anything other than corruption. Even if those individual officials have gone, there must have been a culture of corruption to allow that to happen, so what has happened to change that?
 
#2,226 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

If a top player,multi slam winner ever tests positive or admits to doping,it will be CATASTROPHIC for the sport of tennis,no doubt about it. It not only ruins the career of that player,but also their peers because they could have won so much more but every tournament,every grand slam that the doped player won becomes invalid basically. Which is why we will NEVER find out even if top players are doped.
 
#2,227 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

If a top player,multi slam winner ever tests positive or admits to doping,it will be CATASTROPHIC for the sport of tennis,no doubt about it. It not only ruins the career of that player,but also their peers because they could have won so much more but every tournament,every grand slam that the doped player won becomes invalid basically. Which is why we will NEVER find out even if top players are doped.
The ATP and ITF couldn't care less about the career of the players, they care about $$$$$.

If it became known that a top player dopes it would ruin the sport in terms of sponsorships, viewership, .... They would make a lot less money. The same way they homogenized the surfaces so Dull could win all slams and Novak is only missing one. This brings more people into the sport meaning more $$$$$.

If tennis wasn't run by money whores it would be in a much better place.
 
#2,228 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Navratilova:

I started learning more about doping after I retired. It’s easy to evade. There is stuff that can help tennis players, particularly in the endurance and recovery areas. They can train much harder, and then they have that confidence because they put in more hours. So the effect is mental even though there aren’t drugs for the mental side.

http://www.tennisnow.com/News/10-Questions-with-Martina-Navratilova.aspx
 
#2,229 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

I don't know why I bother posting in the general thread as no one comments here, but it concerns both the CILIC and TROICKI cases, so...

Doping appeals by Cilic, Troicki heard in court
Associated Press | October 9, 2013, 3:10 PM

CAS says Troicki has not asked for his 18-month ban to be frozen during the procedure, which could have cleared him to continue playing in events such as the U.S. Open.


LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Doping appeals by tennis players Marin Cilic and Viktor Troicki at the Court of Arbitration for Sport should be decided within a month.

After Troicki’s case was heard Wednesday, CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb told The Associated Press that Cilic’s appeal against a nine-month ban is scheduled to be heard in London next Wednesday.

In a counter appeal, the International Tennis Federation has challenged the Cilic verdict of its own independent tribunal, Reeb said.

The ITF seeks a two-year ban for the Croatian player’s positive test for a banned stimulant, nikethamide, at a tournament in Munich in May.


Cilic has requested a verdict before the Paris Masters starts Oct. 28, so he could play there if cleared by the court.

“The decision will be rendered shortly after the hearing, probably a few days later,” Reeb said.

Cilic’s ranking has dropped to No. 37, having been No. 12 when he withdrew from Wimbledon citing a knee injury in June. On the same day he accepted a provisional suspension while the tennis governing body prosecuted his case.

Troicki appeared before a CAS panel in Lausanne on Wednesday to appeal his 18-month ban for skipping a blood test after losing at the Monte Carlo Masters in April. The Serbian player and his legal team declined to comment after the 8-hour court session.

The verdict is expected before early November to allow Troicki to register alongside the Novak Djokovic-led Serbs for the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic — should his appeal be successful. Play begins Nov. 15 in Belgrade.

“The timetable is acceptable. Everybody is happy with the dates and the procedure,” Reeb said.

Ranked No. 53 when his sanction was announced in July, Troicki has fallen to No. 73.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/tennis/doping-appeals-by-cilic-troicki-heard-in-court/
so Cilic may not be out of the woods. Maybe Cilic shouldn't have been greedy (looking for even less than 9 months) and taken the reduced ban (or maybe this ITF "counter appeal" would've happened anyway).

Troicki's verdict is not expected for a while, it seems.
 
#2,230 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Spanish press concerned with the numerous dopers who get off scot free.


There have been numerous cases of the Spanish authorities covering up for Spanish CHEATS.

The Fuentes affair, Contador, Valverde, operation Galgo, amongst others.

No wonder Madrid didn't get the 2020 Olympics.
 
#2,231 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Not really about the ATP but about the WTA.

Sharapova's absence from tournaments reminds Rafa's long absence last year. She has played only one match after Wimby (Montreal/Cincy) and skipped the USO, the Asian swing, and will skip the YEC. We remember the speculation around Rafa last year. The ITF's non-transparent doping policy makes all longer breaks suspicious, especially after the Cilic case.

That problem could be solved by better testing and transparent doping policy.
 
#2,235 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Not really about the ATP but about the WTA.

Sharapova's absence from tournaments reminds Rafa's long absence last year. She has played only one match after Wimby (Montreal/Cincy) and skipped the USO, the Asian swing, and will skip the YEC. We remember the speculation around Rafa last year. The ITF's non-transparent doping policy makes all longer breaks suspicious, especially after the Cilic case.

That problem could be solved by better testing and transparent doping policy.
We heard about the Cilic case, didn't we? :rolleyes:
 
#2,233 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

I was thinking about this the other day and I'm amazed how oblivious the tennis world has been to doping over the years with the classic now "Our sport is clean". What triggered this is what Korda managed to do in 1998. That year he beat Rios 2, 2, 2 in the AO final and later that same year he tested positive and eventually got suspended (ITF was incredibly stupid about handling this). I think he retired after that.

So basically you have a guy that was on the juice and that helped him win a grand slam, yet it took more than a dozen years for the authorities to enforce stricter doping rules. It really boggles the mind.

Has there ever been another sport with such a trajectory?
 
#2,234 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Has there ever been another sport with such a trajectory?
To be honest, I think the fans/journalists of most sport have that attitude, until big scandals blow it apart.

I've even heard some interesting stories about 80s players - wouldn't be at all surprising tbh, that's when mass drug use came into a lot of sports.
 
#2,236 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

I didn't want to bump this thread but was thinking one day about the Fuentes case. How come anybody can be so naive that they believe tennis has no doping problem when a doping doctor has many tennis players as his clients. I don't believe Fuentes has been the only doctor associated with tennis, so there has been more dopers than Fuentes' clients.

Anybody who follows the sport closely can say there is a doping problem in tennis, Fuentes case proved that. Only tards suspecting their favourite may deny that.
 
#2,237 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

I didn't want to bump this thread but was thinking one day about the Fuentes case. How come anybody can be so naive that they believe tennis has no doping problem when a doping doctor has many tennis players as his clients. I don't believe Fuentes has been the only doctor associated with tennis, so there has been more dopers than Fuentes' clients.

Anybody who follows the sport closely can say there is a doping problem in tennis, Fuentes case proved that. Only tards suspecting their favourite may deny that.
No, the Fuentes case did not prove that, since we don't know which tennis players, if any, were involved with him.

How about, the Puerta, and more recently, Troicki and Cilic cases prove that?.

No one is saying btw that there's no doping in tennis. From there to believing that there's a serious, widespread problem, or that any absence due to injury is now suspicious, there's a long way.
 
#2,245 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

"The panel determined that the degree of fault committed by [Cilic] was inferior to that established in the (tribunal) decision," the court said in a statement. "The panel also determined that the sanction imposed was too severe in view of the degree of fault and concluded that it should be reduced to four months."
http://www.chron.com/sports/article/Marin-Cilic-cleared-by-CAS-to-play-again-4925215.php
 
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