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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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#2,247 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Expected. And still disgusting.

Does anybody think if Cilic was a cyclist he'd have got away with it like he did? Please.

Tennis has so much to learn from cycling when it comes to the anti-doping fight.
 
#2,249 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Expected. And still disgusting.

Does anybody think if Cilic was a cyclist he'd have got away with it like he did? Please.

Tennis has so much to learn from cycling when it comes to the anti-doping fight.
Indeed. Just look who's the biggest offender in cycling and look who has escaped punishment for long enough.
 
#2,251 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Is the recent about face by tennis players all about Public Relations ?


It is funny to hear from the fanboys in denial, that their favorite players changed their tune to call for more testing, is evidence that they aren't doping, when it is circumstantial evidence of the opposite.

If many players were adamantly opposed to the current weak testing regime, then all of a sudden, in unison, change their tune to demand more testing because Lance Armstrong got caught, that suggests that they are just playing a PR game, and nothing more.
 
#2,252 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Is the recent about face by tennis players all about Public Relations ?


It is funny to hear from the fanboys in denial, that their favorite players changed in tune to call for more testing, is evidence that they aren't doping, when it is circumstantial evidence of the opposite.

If many players were adamantly opposed to the current weak testing regime, then all of a sudden, in unison, change their tune to demand more testing because Lance Armstrong got caught, that suggests that they are just playing a PR game, and nothing more.
I'm sure they realized how it looked- probably looked far too much like reality.
 
#2,253 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

The truth will come out soon.
 
#2,254 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Quinzi's comment)

Despicable from Novak Djokovic:

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013...case-doping-control-official-lying-lot/49363/

“I don’t see why they’re keeping him suspended. For what? For failing to provide the blood test? He asked the lady that day, you know, he’s not feeling well. Can I provide you tomorrow? She said, 'Yes, if you write report.' He wrote the report, and the next thing you know she’s failing to say the truth in the court in London. She was saying that he was convincing him, that it took her 20 minutes to walk from anti-doping office to the ATP office in Monte-Carlo tournament, which is 20 meters. So she was lying a lot. That’s very bad for our sport. That’s very bad for anti-doping agency, to have people who are responsible for this work to fail to say what really happened that day. There was another person present in the room that day that wrote a perfect English on the report, and then in the court in London he didn’t understand a single word.”
Shameful. He's accusing another professional of a fireable (or worse) offense, with no evidence whatsoever other than his friend's word. He absolutely is allowed to believe his friend if he is so inclined, but to throw someone else under the bus, without evidence? He wasn't there. He didn't hear what happens. I almost feel bad for him, because he's putting all of his trust in his accused friend. He probably has the best of intentions, but damning accusation + loyal friend/family stick up for accused, usually doesn't end well.

He doesn't have proof, so he needs to understand that he should keep his mouth shut. He's setting doping control back many steps and he's bringing the ATP into disrepute.

If nothing else, that would get you banned in this thread. Accusations without proof and all. :unsure:
 
#2,255 ·
Everyone Lies, blasts Tsonga

Bin This if already Posted

The attempts of tennis to clamp down on doping were mired in confusion and recrimination on Monday night after former world number nine Marin Cilic emerged from his shortened ban for testing positive.
The 25-year-old Croatian appeared at the BNP Paribas Masters in his first match since Wimbledon, and afterwards insisted that the sport’s anti-doping authorities had mistakenly overestimated the amount of Nikethamide found in his body when he failed a test back in May.

Jo Wilfried Tsonga earlier articulated a general level of exasperation with the system when he declared that ‘everybody is lying’ when it comes to an issue that has been increasingly to the fore this year.


Before Cilic had won his first round 6-7 6-1 6-4 against Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling, in what is the build-up to next week’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, the popular Frenchman expressed his frustration.
'We don’t know what is true, what is not true,' said Tsonga. 'Personally I just don’t know who I believe anymore. Everybody is lying, even the institutions. I don’t know if it is true but this is the feeling I have.
'Those who are testing us I feel are not always saying the truth, so with all these things we don’t even know where the truth lies.'

Cilic was allowed to make a sudden comeback in the French capital after the Court of Arbitration for Sport last Friday cut the initial nine-month ban handed out by an independent International Tennis Federation panel in September.

The CAS tribunal also reduced his punishment to the mere confiscation of prize money from the Munich Open (where the test took place), having initially been told he would lose all points and prize money in the period up to his withdrawal from Wimbledon, which he said at the time was purely due to a knee injury.
Although the full CAS judgement has yet to be published, Cilic said his ostensibly lenient treatment was down to the fact that it emerged there that the amount of Nikethamide – contained in what he insists he thought was a glucose supplement – was so negligible it was only a metabolite trace.

A key factor is that Nikethamide is actually allowed to be taken out of competition but not during it.
'There was no Nikethamide in my system at all, and that was not even part of the conversation at the first hearing,' said Cilic. 'I don’t know, either it was a mistake or negligence from somebody but definitely it could have had a huge impact on me.

'In the end the only part that was found in my system was the metabolite, which is completely inactive.'
The long and involved process will not do much for the credibility of efforts to make sure that tennis remains a relatively clean sport. Cilic described the period since being informed of the positive test during Wimbledon as ‘the worst time of my life.’

He added: 'I felt like a kid playing tennis for the first time. The feeling was amazing just to be back on court, I enjoyed every moment.'

The published judgement from the September hearing made interesting reading, partly because it detailed the breakdown of his relationship with veteran Australian coach Bob Brett. It was also curiously worded in areas.
For instance under the heading ‘The Facts’ it stated that Cilic ‘is an honest and truthful man’. It is true he has always been a respected figure within the game, but that seems a strange assertion to present as a fact in this kind of hearing.

The panel also accepted his insistence that he was simply unaware of the supplement’s potential danger in relation to doping tests, despite the fact that the enclosed leaflet stated clearly and boldly (in French) ‘Sportifs: Attention’.

Despite that acceptance, going by the principle that athletes are responsible for what goes into their bodies, a nine-month ban was given, although it could have been as long as two years.

The International Tennis Federation, which administers the anti-doping programme on behalf of the game’s various constituencies and is bringing in a biological passport system, does not comment on individual cases.
The air of general distrust has already been contributed to by the outspoken comments of Novak Djokovic earlier this month. At the ATP event in Beijing he passionately addressed the subject of his compatriot Viktor Troicki’s ban for declining to take a dope test at the Monte Carlo Open. It is also due to go before CAS.

Being early October, a slack time of the season when the sport has a relatively low media profile, his accusation that the duty doping control officer lied drew little attention but was explosive enough.
His view may have been clouded by loyalty to his old friend, but he went too far in what he said about the officer named in the ITF adjudication as Dr. Gorodoliva, who was described as having fourteen years’ experience and singled out by the panel for being an extremely credible witness.

Despite not having been present at all during the process Djokovic told the media in China: 'She was lying a lot. That’s very bad for our sport. That’s very bad for anti-doping agency, to have people who are responsible for this work to fail to say what really happened that day.'

Imagine if an equivalent superstar figure to Djokovic in a sport like golf, say Phil Mickelson, had come out with such a slur on an official’s character, would the reaction be as sanguine as that in tennis?
A spokesperson for the ITF, which administers the anti-doping programme, had this to say when asked about his outburst: 'The ITF doesn’t have a specific comment to make on Novak Djokovic’s statement. Ultimately he is expressing his opinion, however strongly, that will either be supported or not by a fully-reasoned CAS tribunal decision.'

The official herself might be asking, rather like Tsonga, just what is going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2478649/Jo-Wilfried-Tsonga-Everybody-lies-drugs.html

I thought I would also mention a comment by Judy Murray in her BT Sport column:


“You have to be kidding!” I said. I was more frustrated than Andy, who seemed to take it in his stride and see the funny side. It can take ages to get a sample if you’ve just been to the loo and I had visions of us turning up at the Palace embarrassingly late. Luckily, the guy said: “It’s not a urine test, it’s blood.” So Andy sat at the table, had his blood taken, and we only left quarter of an hour late.

Apart from that jolt (and Andy does seem to get tested more than other players between the International Tennis Federation, the British Olympic Association and the World Anti-Doping Agency) it was a great day.

http://sport.bt.com/womeninsport/ju...nearly-derailed-andys-big-day-S11363845118318
 
#2,256 ·
Re: Everyone Lies, blasts Tsonga

This should be in the doping thread.
 
#2,260 ·
Re: Everyone Lies, blasts Tsonga

The Cilic situation is so confusing. The testers are undermining their credibility rapidly.

Andy seems to get tested all the time. Maybe it's easier to find him?
 
#2,262 ·
Re: Everyone Lies, blasts Tsonga

The Cilic situation is so confusing. The testers are undermining their credibility rapidly.

Andy seems to get tested all the time. Maybe it's easier to find him?
Well when you're staying home and playing PS3 99% of the time, the testing officials will always know where to look :p
 
#2,264 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

ITF admits that "silent bans" do exist.


Stuart Miller, the federation’s antidoping manager, applauded Cilic’s willingness to remove himself from competition. “Voluntary suspension, I think, is a good thing for a player to do because it does demonstrate a good attitude toward the integrity of the game,” Miller said.

He added that it was not the federation’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of any explanation given for suddenly pulling out of a tournament.

“If a player withdraws due to an antidoping rule violation charge, it’s up to them to say what they want to say about that,” Miller said. “And, of course, if it subsequently comes out that the reason for doing so may not have been the real reason, or the complete reason, then it’s up to the player to explain why he or she did what he or she did.”

Miller said the federation had drawn a “line in the sand” about disclosing an infraction only after the tribunal had ruled it to be a violation worthy of punishment.

“It says if and when there is a violation, then you must publicly disclose it,” Miller said. “That’s all it says. There’s nothing else that is MANDATORY in terms of public disclosure.”




So, the ITF admits that silent bans do exist ("voluntary bans" that the player is allowed to lie about).

As well, he admits that the ITF only meets the minimum standard within the WADA code for transparency (will only disclose the doping violation, if the process deems the player to have doped). This leaves them the wiggle room to accept any BS excuse from the player, (like they did with Agassi {hey man, it was Slim's drink, honest}) to protect the top ranked players (your "heroes").

This shows that the ITF is more concerned with the public relations of doping, than they are with catching the CHEATS. Does it take a genius to figure out that the ITF's testing regime is designed to catch only a few sloppy dopers (the higher ranked players have "consultants" that know how to beat the tests)?
 
#2,265 ·
Cyclist says that it is a lie to call tennis' drug testing tough.

Tennis's drug testing is a joke says Mark Cavendish.


Suckers have bought a lot of propaganda here.

- Tennis's testing is tougher than other sports.

- Modern nutrition, and training explains the dramatic increase in physicality for modern tennis players.

- They just work harder, you should try it you lazy couch potato.

- In spite of overwhelming circumstantial evidence, we must assume that doping isn't a problem in tennis, until many tennis players get caught by doping controls.

- Only nut job conspiracy theorists believe that the ITF would give out "silent bans".

- Only a few lower level players dope, the top level players who beat these lower level players on a regular basis are clean.

- Tennis players are too gentile to dope.

- Doping wouldn't help a tennis player much, because tennis is a "skill based" sport.

- My favorite player wouldn't dope, I have him figured out, and he is much too honest to do such a thing.

- My favorite wouldn't dope, he gives much to charity.



Of course, we have heard the same BS from Armstrong, and other doping "heroes" supporters before.

But it is different in tennis right ?

There is a sucker born every minute.
 
#2,267 ·
Re: Cyclist says that it is a lie to call tennis' drug testing tough.

Tennis's drug testing is a joke says Mark Cavendish.


Suckers have bought a lot of propaganda here.

- Tennis's testing is tougher than other sports.

- Modern nutrition, and training explains the dramatic increase in physicality for modern tennis players.

- They just work harder, you should try it you lazy couch potato.

- In spite of overwhelming circumstantial evidence, we must assume that doping isn't a problem in tennis, until many tennis players get caught by doping controls.

- Only nut job conspiracy theorists believe that the ITF would give out "silent bans".

- Only a few lower level players dope, the top level players who beat these lower level players on a regular basis are clean.

- Tennis players are too gentile to dope.

- Doping wouldn't help a tennis player much, because tennis is a "skill based" sport.

- My favorite player wouldn't dope, I have him figured out, and he is much too honest to do such a thing.

- My favorite wouldn't dope, he gives much to charity.



Of course, we have heard the same BS from Armstrong, and other doping "heroes" supporters before.

But it is different in tennis right ?

There is a sucker born every minute.

:worship:
 
#2,266 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

Cavendish :yeah:
 
#2,269 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

I can't believe some people actually believe that silent bans don't exist. Of course they do. If high profile tennis stars were doping it would definitely be covered up. There was a very recent rumoured silent ban, which we don't know is true or not but we certainly cannot rule out. You all know who I mean!

I am not saying whether or not it happened, how would I know? But it wouldn't shock me.

What makes me laugh is that people always question certain players but completely dismiss the idea of people like Federer doing it. I hope he wouldn't, but I am not in a position to say.
 
#2,270 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

I can't believe some people actually believe that silent bans don't exist. Of course they do. If high profile tennis stars were doping it would definitely be covered up. There was a very recent rumoured silent ban, which we don't know is true or not but we certainly cannot rule out. You all know who I mean!

I am not saying whether or not it happened, how would I know? But it wouldn't shock me.

What makes me laugh is that people always question certain players but completely dismiss the idea of people like Federer doing it. I hope he wouldn't, but I am not in a position to say.
What would be the point of a silent ban? The concept makes no sense. If they are going to cover it up then why not simply sweep the positive results under the rug and have everything carry on as normal?
 
#2,271 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

The point of silent ban? Not to destroy the golden block-buster, big $$$ image of tennis. And not to destroy the imagies of all the gold hens that bring them $$$$.
 
#2,273 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

Richard Ings (Executive Vice President, Rules and Competition, of the ATP Tour (2001-2005)):
The WADA code requires athletes to be provisionally suspended when an adverse A sample is reported. There is no requirement on sports to also publicly announce a provisional suspension, just to make sure it happens. Some sports publicly announce provisional suspensions. Others including tennis do not. WADA allow sports discretion to follow either path.

Personally what is important is that the athlete is off the pitch or tennis court in fairness to others competing. I find that public comment at the A sample point simple drags out gossip and is unfair on all parties keeping in mind that the athlete is still innocent at that time. But I respect that some sports may wish to announce provisional suspensions.
 
#2,274 ·
#2,279 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

of course there are silent bans and that is the Tour's preferred way to deal with the offenders who are caught... when Sesil failed the test, the WTA tried to work out a deal where she would be long absent due to an injury, but L'Equipe blew the whistle and everything came apart for the Bulgarian... all was being done at closed doors, but once the Press reported out, the WTA had no other resource but to publicly suspend the player...
 
#2,280 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

Murray sticking it to Troicki and Cilic:

Russell Fuller ‏@russellcfuller 22m
Andy Murray has just told BBC Sport that Viktor Troicki & Marin Cilic were 'unprofessional' in the actions which led to their doping bans

He thinks there needs to be 'almost zero tolerance' so players aren't tempted to cheat & sport can regain the public's trust

On Cilic - 'I personally myself would never go and buy something over the counter in a pharmacy - it's just unprofessional.'
 
#2,283 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

The point of silent ban? Not to destroy the golden block-buster, big $$$ image of tennis. And not to destroy the imagies of all the gold hens that bring them $$$$.

Totally agree. Amazes me that so many can't/won't realise this. Only hope for tennis is that the new younger players will not be allowed to dope and that when the current dopers finally get too old that tennis will become watchable again. Would bet all I own that some of the Top 10 are juiced.
 
#2,284 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

The point of silent ban? Not to destroy the golden block-buster, big $$$ image of tennis. And not to destroy the imagies of all the gold hens that bring them $$$$.

Totally agree. Amazes me that so many can't/won't realise this. Only hope for tennis is that the new younger players will not be allowed to dope and that when the current dopers finally get too old that tennis will become watchable again. Would bet all I own that some of the Top 10 are juiced.
well, I once held the naive hope that positive results would be released to the public after a lengthy hiatus period and we would be able to at least know who was doing it in past generations... foolish me, the powers to be keep them tightly controlled no matter how long it's been, as the Agassi confession showed to the world, Agassi himself had to disclose it in his book while the ATP acted all sanctimonious about it... to this day we have no information on those 16 positive results from the time of the Rusedski's affair...
 
#2,286 ·
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

Good for Murray, we need more players' voices in the anti-doping fight.

"As far as the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) is concerned, the statistics don’t support the suggestion that there is less testing, in that Roger Federer was tested an average of 8 times per year from 2004-2006, 11 times per year from 2007-2009, and 9 times per year in 2010-2012."

--Stuart Miller
Stuart, 9 < 11 :facepalm:
 
#2,288 · (Edited)
Re: Doping in Tennis Thread (No accusations without proof. Tsonga blasts)

http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.com/

What are peoples' thoughts on this site? It seems to have some good stuff on it, but the paranoia-tards are absolutely insufferable. :rolleyes:

You mean like the "paranoia-tards" that thought Lance Armstrong/Marion Jones/Barry Bonds/Mark McGuire/Roger Clemens were CHEATING FRAUDS, before it was proved they were right ?

It is just as obvious that there are several DOPING CHEATS in the top ten in both the men's and women's pro tennis tour as the obvious CHEATS in other sports.

Your suggestion that the skeptics are mentally ill is just a defense mechanism obscuring your denial.
 
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