Despite the best efforts of the tennis heads of state to assure us that all is well, the doping controversy intensified this week. Mr Ed takes a look at the latest twists in the ongoing saga, as well as reflecting on Roger Federer?s current bad patch.
Doping: the issue that won?t go away
Tennis authorities continue to resist attempts to push them toward an admission that doping is a problem in their sport.
Until now, the pressure has come mainly from players (or coaches) who feel that some competitors are resorting to substances that would give them an advantage over the competition. The examples have not been hard to find. In the past two years, Jim Courier, Guy Forget, Marcelo Ríos, Nathalie Tauziat, Nicolas Escudé, Fabrice Santoro, among others, have all voiced concern that the use of performance-enhancing substances is more widespread than we would like to believe. It has been all too easy to dismiss
these public statements as petty jealousy, or ??ill-informed, irresponsible and offensive?, as the CEO of the ATP, Mark Miles, did in a recent press release.
Now, a noted anti-doping authority has stepped in to voice his concern. John Mendoza, chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, made no bones about his concern that doping is a problem in tennis. ?Tennis is heavily under the influence of doping and they are in denial if they don't accept that,? said Mendoza in no uncertain terms.
Mendoza sees the problem as most apparent in women?s tennis, where he says testing is even less systematic than it is for the men and players with imposing muscle mass increasingly dominate the circuit. ?What Australian parent would want their daughter going into tennis?,? Mendoza told the newspaper The Australian. ?If you want to be No. 1 in the world in women's tennis you are going to have to be abnormal in body physique.? Mendoza feels that doping-savvy athletes, knowing that they are most likely to
be tested at Grand Slams, can take short-acting steroids and growth hormones up to three days before a tournament and still be confident they will test negative.
?No-notice out-of-competition testing is the only true deterrent,? according to Mendoza. When asked about the notion of out-of-competition testing at Wimbledon, two of the top three players in the women?s rankings, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati, said they were opposed: Williams for security reasons and Capriati because she felt the procedure was an invasion of privacy.
Mendoza counters that any world-class athlete in this day and age must know they should be submitting to procedures common in other sports. ?Why are tennis players above this?", asked Mendoza rhetorically. ?When [Australian swimming star] Ian Thorpe goes to New York, we know, and we can go and test him any time we like.?
Tennis authorities have had ambivalent reactions to the growing doping concerns. On the one hand, they are belatedly moving toward a comprehensive testing system. On the other hand, they give the impression there are no worries, and go out of their way to rap the knuckles of those who come out publicly, as the ATP did to Escudé at Wimbledon last month (the French player said after a meeting with Mark Miles that he expected disciplinary action).
But how do you rap the knuckles of the chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency? By issuing huffy press releases, of course. Both Francesco Ricci Bitti, president of the ITF, and the WTA Tour?s CEO Kevin Wulff, were indignant in their reactions, and made it clear they expected a retraction and apology from the troublesome Aussie. With some justification, they criticized Mendoza for trafficking rumour and speculation with no concrete evidence. They also defended the anti-doping programmes c
urrently in place, while affirming it was about to be expanded.
But doubts remain about the effectiveness of the programmes in place in tennis. It was revealed this week that two players had tested positive for banned substances at this year?s French Open. Significantly, the testing was not done by the tennis authorities, but by the independent French national anti-doping agency, Le Conseil de prévention et de lutte contre le dopage (CPLD).
This doping controversy could not come at a worse time for tennis. Public awareness of the issue in sport has never been higher. The Tour de France, currently under way, has again been dogged by doping concerns. In the United States, baseball fans are furious at revelations of widespread steroid use by their power-hitting heroes. Tennis lovers are usually a polite lot, but do we really want the spectre of tennis fans becoming jaded with the results of their muscular idols? Or chanting ?Steroids! Stero
ids!?, as some baseball spectators now do, as a champion proudly holds up her or his trophy?
WTA, ATP, ITF, the ball is in your court and is coming at you faster than you know.
Fragile Federer fumbles again
The talent of the brilliant 20-year-old out of Basle, Roger Federer, is undeniable. On the heels of a fine season that has seen him appear in four finals and win two titles, including the Masters Series event in Hamburg, the Swiss youngster was made one of the favourites to win both the French Open and Wimbledon. However, Roger crashed out in the first round of both of these recent Grand Slam events.
Federer was hoping to get back on the rails in his country?s Open in Gstaad this week. Things started well, as in the first round he avenged his Paris loss to Hicham Arazi by defeating the Moroccan in straight sets. But the demons returned in the second round, and Federer was eliminated by a qualifier from the Czech Republic, Radek Stepanek, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
It is becoming clear that Federer?s confidence can be a fragile thing, and this was again indicated in his post-match comments. ?There are moments on the court, when things go quickly from very good to bad,? lamented the Swiss star. ?Why that is, I don?t know. I need a couple of wins to build up my confidence.?
It was a tough week for Swiss tennis all around, as it was also revealed that Martina Hingis, still recovering from May ankle surgery, will be on the shelf until at least the U.S. Open.