Tennis to step up drug fight in light of Lance Armstrong scandal

Lance Armstrong's admission that he took drugs to help him win all seven of his Tour de France titles has put performance enhancing substances in the spotlight.
Now tennis has been brought into the debate with former world number four Guy Forget claiming he was beaten by rivals who took drugs.
Three players - Ryan Newport from the United States, Bulgarian Dimitar Kutrovsky and Italian Filippo Calorosi - are currently suspended from playing for taking drugs and Forget believes they are not the only men on the circuit guilty of doping.
BBC Sport speaks to current and ex players, coaches and officials in charge of testing to try and discover if tennis has a drug problem.

Drugs in tennis

The Men's Tennis Council began drug testing in the late 1980s with the focus mainly on recreational drugs. The testing was extended to include performance-enhancing drugs when the ATP Tour was formed in 1990.

Guy Forget claims he played against rivals who had taken drugs
But Guy Forget, who was ranked the fourth best player in the world in 1991, is convinced he played against players who were doping.
He says: "I have lost matches against guys who beat me with an unfair advantage because they were taking drugs.
"For sure, it has happened. I can look at myself in the mirror knowing I have never taken anything.
"When I played there were no controls at all so why wouldn't you cheat the system."

The situation now

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) now leads a unified Tennis Anti-Doping Programme applying across all tennis events.
The ITF carried out 131 blood tests both in and out of competition in 2011, the last year for which figures are available. That was alongside 2,019 urine tests.
Now the ITF are planning to introduce an athlete biological passport (ABP) which allows officials to collect and compare biological data and spot variances that suggest doping.
“
I feel tennis is clean, I do very much. For the amount of times that we get tested throughout the year and as random as they are, definitely
”
Maria Sharapova
It is an improvement many in the game believe is needed.
Forget added: "I don't feel our sport is clean. I am sure now as we speak there are some guys that are cheating. You cannot say tennis is not touched by this poisonous thing.
"I think it is a minority probably, but that is why Roger Federer and the other guys says we should put more money into blood test and controls because we should fight this any way we can."
Australian coach Darren Cahill, who has coached Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi in the past, says on Twitter: "Our testing program is inadequate. That's why no-one can stand up and speak out. It's gone backwards in recent years."
Current world number one Novak Djokovic recently complained the number of blood tests he has undergone has dropped in the last year.
He said: "I wasn't tested with blood for last six, seven months. It was more regularly in last two, three years ago. I don't know the reason why they stopped it."

Fighting back

Dr. Stuart Miller, who oversees the ITF's anti-doping programme, claims education as much as detection is the best way to cure the problems of drugs in sport.
But he is an advocate of plans to bring in an ABP to make it easier to find the drug cheats.
Miller says: "We think we can improve by introducing what is known as the athlete biological passport, which is a blood-based testing programme which allows you to establish individual baseline parameters.
"That is not in operation at the moment. But we're looking very, very closely at it and I think that there's a reasonably good chance that that will be operational probably towards the end of 2013.
"It takes a long time to set up. There's a number of constraints and conditions that you have to satisfy, you can't just turn a switch."
What is a athlete biological passport
An ABP is an electronic document about the athlete that contains certain biomarkers from through his career.

If these markers change dramatically from the historic levels it alerts officials that the athlete might be doping.

Miller went on to answer Forget's complaints.
"I think we need to put a couple of things into context," he said. "Firstly I think Forget answered his own question when he said back at the time when he was playing, anti-doping was very different.
"There was no such thing as the World Anti-Doping Agency, there was no list of prohibited substances that all the sports signed up to and actually tennis was one of the pioneering sports in introducing anti-doping testing back in Forget's time.
"Granted, it was for a different list of prohibited substances - it was mainly recreational substances - and he's right, there wasn't as much testing, but tennis was pioneering at that particular time. And it's come a long way since that time, when he was playing."

Is tennis clean?

The leading players have thrown their support behind initiatives to weed out rivals who use drugs to enhance their performance but many are content that the sport is not on a par with the level of doping that has been uncovered in cycling.
World number three Andy Murray says: "I think all sports are trying to improve their doping controls.
"If that's more blood testing or the biological passports, that's something we need to do and improve in tennis, as well.

The three men currently banned for drug taking
Filippo Calorosi (Ita)
Dimitar Kutrovsky (Bul)
Ryan Newport (USA)

Four time grand slam winner Maria Sharapova is confident she is competing on a level playing field.
The Russian says: "I feel tennis is clean, I do very much. For the amount of times that we get tested throughout the year and as random as they are, definitely."
Tennis great Martina Navratilova, who won 18 Grand Slam titles, accepts doping has taken place in tennis but not a large degree.
She says: "There is very stringent drug testing going on and it has to be done, because there obviously has been some cheating going on as a few people have been caught.
"But overall, I think we have a pretty clean sport. You know that Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal or any of those guys wouldn't do anything like what Lance Armstrong was doing.
"I think tennis is doing a pretty good job, at least from what I see."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21139622

not sure about this one. thoughts?

Is this a new 'fight' or more PR and lip-service?

Players forget their own reactions when testers show up at their doorstep.

I heard Millar's interview, it was terrible. He didn't want to answer a question about why they have reduced blood doping tests for some reason. And tried to dodge the question by talking around it with some mumbo jumbo about financial properties, but only a fool could miss that he was refusing to answer the question.

When asked if it was true that they did not spend all their budget for doping as their accounts or annual report indicate, he did actually refuse to answer.


Although it was interesting that he is considering a passport type system.

What makes Navratilova so sure that Fed or Nadal wouldn't do anything like that?

I am really sick of this Noah and Forget crap about players taking drugs in their day.

Provide names or shut the f*** up already! Getting boring now listening to hangers on because they are no longer in the limelight.

Provide names or shut the f*** up already!

Don't want to give lawyers a chance to sue him.

I think the big name tennis players genuinely believe they're being tested a lot and that anti-doping is fairly stringent.

It's not, and it's not for a good reason.

Every sport is happy that drug taking on their sport 'is not on a par with cycling'. They love having cycling there as the black sheep in terms of doping sports, and they can always look their way disapprovingly as another cyclist falls foul to the incredibly tough testing system they have to go through.

All tennis anti-doping talk is PR, because the last thing they want to do is catch a big name. It's fantastic for some players nobody has heard of to be serving bans because they can throw them around as examples of the fantastic work the anti-doping is doing but it doesn't impact on the credibility of the sport.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

Provide names or shut the f*** up already!

Don't want to give lawyers a chance to sue him.

He claims 'for sure'

So there must be some form of proof ready and waiting

Edit by Mod - Quoted post edited, so response may look a little odd!

Sports like athletics and cycling were completely doped back in Forget's day. Are you suggesting that tennis players were somehow more moral and would never stoop so low compared to the nasty runners and pedallers?

Particularly as, even then, tennis anti-doping was miles behind (if even in place at all) compared to those two sports.

Josiah, I've removed your statement about Canas, for reasons which I trust are obvious.

JuliusHMarx wrote:Josiah, I've removed your statement about Canas, for reasons which I trust are obvious.

Yeah?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tennis/canas-banned-over-doping-mistake/2005/08/09/1123353320982.html

so we cant speculate who may be doping?

JuliusHMarx wrote:Josiah, I've removed your statement about Canas, for reasons which I trust are obvious.

Not really obvious.

Canas tested positive, therefore any comments doubting him THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER are perfectly reasonable.

In fact, I can say 'I doubt xxx cyclist' or 'xxx sprinter' is clean and this is regarded as a perfectly reasonable statement to make even without any proof simply because so many cyclists and sprinters have tested positive. What I can't say is 'I saw xxx cyclist injecting himself with EPO at 5:12 on Tuesday afternoon' without any evidence that he did so.

dj, unless you read the remark before it was removed, you can't judge it.
And even if you read it, it's up to me as Mod to take whatever action I believe to be in the best interests of the forum.

In addition the positive test did not actually show any evidence of doping, he was subsequently acquitted and all prize money returned.

LuvSports! wrote:so we cant speculate who may be doping?

You can speculate and express opinions, as long as they are clearly stated as opinions, not as statements of fact.

JuliusHMarx wrote:dj, unless you read the remark before it was removed, you can't judge it.
And even if you read it, it's up to me as Mod to take whatever action I believe to be in the best interests of the forum.

In addition the positive test did not actually show any evidence of doping, he was subsequently acquitted and all prize money returned.

Every sportsman who gets banned for doping can say they "never knowingly took such and such", where are your sources for the "no evidence of doping"?

The positive test was for a substance which has no benefits other than as a medicine - but which could cover up banned substances. No such banned substances were found in the test. Canas subsequently appealed and was acquited.

emancipator wrote:What makes Navratilova so sure that Fed or Nadal wouldn't do anything like that?

Very good point, do ATP have the courage to stand up against a big name if found to be abusing the system? they had no guts in terms of one past legend. It would be shameful of ATP if a current player admits to using drugs in the future like Lance Armstrong did. So its better ATP act now and act very seriously and bring any name out who did the mistake.

- but which could cover up banned substances.

The trouble is diuretics are banned, otherwise he would not have got the original 2 year ban.

its better ATP act now and act very seriously and bring any name out who did the mistake.

Same ATP that let players have 50 seconds in between points instead of the designated 20, quite optimistic.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:
Same ATP that let players have 50 seconds in between points instead of the designated 20, quite optimistic.

Yea its some time shame that an organization don't have back bone to stand on itself and the rules. Yea silly me to expect ATP to act seriously

I think the only case of drugs in tennis I've heard of is what happened to Gasquet in that nightclub . Still, any increase in testing can only be a good thing or so I'd hope.

The Special Juan wrote:I think the only case of drugs in tennis I've heard of is what happened to Gasquet in that nightclub . Still, any increase in testing can only be a good thing or so I'd hope.

What about the Andre Agassi scandal? I was abused for raising the thread some time back when the issue propped up.

JuliusHMarx wrote:dj, unless you read the remark before it was removed, you can't judge it.
And even if you read it, it's up to me as Mod to take whatever action I believe to be in the best interests of the forum.

In addition the positive test did not actually show any evidence of doping, he was subsequently acquitted and all prize money returned.

That's the tennis way. It's better for them if anyone getting caught doping has a 'reasonable excuse'. They'll do this anytime a well known player gets caught.

It must be nice for a cheating tennis player to know that even if they do fail a test, the ITF/ATP/WTA will have their backs when it comes to appeals, etc. Seems perverse really considering it's these governing bodies that are supposedly in charge of anti-doping in tennis.

I did read it. It was fine. I'm not questioning your ultimate authority about removing it. I only stated that what was written was perfectly reasonable.

Good article LuvSports, good research

I believe we should have lots of secret drug testing, with no communication in advance.
Also to have it during off season as well as in season.

invisiblecoolers wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I think the only case of drugs in tennis I've heard of is what happened to Gasquet in that nightclub . Still, any increase in testing can only be a good thing or so I'd hope.

What about the Andre Agassi scandal? I was abused for raising the thread some time back when the issue propped up.

Not a physically enhancing drug though was it..

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

invisiblecoolers wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I think the only case of drugs in tennis I've heard of is what happened to Gasquet in that nightclub . Still, any increase in testing can only be a good thing or so I'd hope.

What about the Andre Agassi scandal? I was abused for raising the thread some time back when the issue propped up.

Not a physically enhancing drug though was it..

Who knows what it was exactly, this news only came out coz Andre said it out himself, no body can assure what else happened behind doors.

It Must Be Love wrote:Good article LuvSports, good research

I believe we should have lots of secret drug testing, with no communication in advance.
Also to have it during off season as well as in season.

That's how out of competition drug testing works already.

It's just that the amount of OOC testing depends very much on which country you're from.

Btw, I'm not trying to defend the ITF/ATP drugs testing policy and procedures, which we all seem to agree are shockingly poor and getting worse again in recent years.

Instead of dredging the past and naming players who are already listed with drug accusations, correctly or incorrectly, exonerated or not, it would be a better discussion, if we discussed future direction of such testing and how it can be modernised, be more effective, and catch players who used prohibited substances.

The 'frozen' sample approach with long-term storage, with appropriate controls, and advances in medical science and testing would be one step.

ABP is only addressing the possibility of doping, by using markers. If such markers change, it may indicate doping.

From the BBC article...

What is a athlete biological passport

An ABP is an electronic document about the athlete that contains certain biomarkers from through his career.

If these markers change dramatically from the historic levels it alerts officials that the athlete might be doping.

What is the point of might?

The aspect of transparency by WADA, rather than the current 'closed-door' policy should also be addressed, otherwise corruption charges can be leveled against governing bodies, including WADA.

Since the sport of Tennis is a public sport, perhaps WADA should provide public accountability as well.

Another step would be the unification of code and acceptance by all countries with uniform laws, unlike the Spanish situation where laws being different in 2005-06 vs now is still causing legal issues.

invisiblecoolers wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:I think the only case of drugs in tennis I've heard of is what happened to Gasquet in that nightclub . Still, any increase in testing can only be a good thing or so I'd hope.

What about the Andre Agassi scandal? I was abused for raising the thread some time back when the issue propped up.

Was that what he apparently admitted in his autobiography? I've not read it so I don't know but that sounds familiar.

Let's hope the testers are ready wherever Spanish players may go:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/9816922/Spain-accused-of-a-doping-cover-up-as-doctor-implicated-in-cyclings-Operation-Puerto-scandal-goes-on-trial.html

barrystar wrote:Let's hope the testers are ready wherever Spanish players may go:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/9816922/Spain-accused-of-a-doping-cover-up-as-doctor-implicated-in-cyclings-Operation-Puerto-scandal-goes-on-trial.html

Pathetic, but that's the Spanish way. Didn't one of their ministers come out publicly in support of Contador? something along the lines of "I'm sure he'll be acquitted"

as for tennis, given the lack of testing and useless anti-doping policy, I'd be very surprised if the top 50 players weren't on something, at least.*

*This is my personal opinion, I have no evidence whatsoever to back it up, but an ex-tennis pro agrees with me (he says he never doped, but then he never made it remotely close to the top 50, decent doubles player though).

@ LF , I didn't wanna name any player, its just one of the poster said he don't remember any other occasion other than Gasq so I pointed an example.

@MfC/@BarryStar... The lack of desire from the Spanish establishment to clean house is rather baffling. If they know, expose it and clean up house. Perhaps a generation of sports will be tainted, but not what is to come.

The link you posted for Fuentes trial is also a partial closure. It is very hard to isolate one sport, Cycling, from others and call it a completion of one trial.

@iC... I do understand. There is a whole list of players on WiKipedia including Tennis players. It is public. My suggestion was aimed at progressing the discussion in a neutral way, without specific players or countries with past histories being regurgitated, to avoid making this discussion a repetition of many previous discussions.

There are many detractors of the Spanish, does it mean, all other nations are clean. No? The country I live in is the country of Lance Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones, etc. It is a sad indictment. Does that mean every sportsperson in the country is abusing the system. There are many honest athletes.

It would be wonderful, if we address the situation moving forward.

Agreed LF

fuentes says he has been receiving death threats for naming athletes outside cycling, e.g. tennis and mainly footy.
He basically said the Spanish wc team were on drugs for their 2010 wc win

I understand the death threats because Fuentes's testimony may cause millions (or even billions) in prize money to be returned and the shame of such public cheating.

Such rewards were obtained by cheating in the first place, and are not rightfully the winners'.

The Spanish Guardia should provide adequate protection for the Good Doctor.

I hope tennis (and other sports) will fight doping as seriously as possible but I am worried that they do not have enough incentives to do so.

I think there are a lot of sports fans who may not want doping to be part of sport but who will take the view that as long as the sport does not catch many dopers, it is likely clean. Since the system is largely self-policing, sports may almost have incentive to not catch culprits lest they tarnish their reputation. I worry that even while they may not let cheaters purposefully slip, they may not go out of their way to catch them either.

My take is that doping in sports may well be far more widespread than the number of positive tests would indicate. A few weeks back I asked posters here what was their best guess for the number of top 100 ATP players who dope. If I remember correctly, typical answer was somewhere in the 10-15 range. Maybe I am cynical, or pessimistic (or realistic?) but to me that number sounds way too low.

Anyway, while I am not overly hopeful, let's hope that sports intensify their fight against doping.

Some interesting info in here especially regarding the whereabouts rule. Apparently Federer and Djokovic said similar things at the time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/9641656/Andy-Murray-calls-on-tennis-to-get-tough-on-drugs-in-the-wake-of-the-Lance-Armstrong-scandal-in-cycling.html

ATP are scared that if one particular guy is named to be a steroid user, then the guy will reveal more about who else was doing it.

the omerta is in every sport, beware!

I just don't care anymore. I assume doping in all sports now until proven otherwise and just watch the tennis. Although I think tennis is probably cleaner than most sports. I don't really have much to back that up other than my gut feeling and the fact that I just don't see doping to be as big an advantage in a technical game like tennis where hand eye coordination and technical brilliance are still the fundamental dividing line of who wins and who doesn't. I mean if chubby Nalbandian can multiple masters and be a perennial top ten player with a tire around his waist why dope? But again I don't know what percentage are doping and what percentage aren't, it is just my gut feeling.

Interesting comments by Novak he wants to be tested more. Well that seems to be a reassuring statement the guy feels pretty confident that he is either clean or if you want to take a negative outlook at least he is confident he can beat any test.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:ATP are scared that if one particular guy is named to be a steroid user, then the guy will reveal more about who else was doing it.

They are also scared on how much it would affect the popularity rating.

SoCal

Doping may have less of an obvious advantage in tennis (or soccer) than in a purely physical sport such as cycling or running, but remember that fatigue is an important reason for technique breaking down, so anything that either reduces fatigue or enhances recovery (short term - between points and at changes of end) would be beneficial. And then you simply have the ability of players to run forever.

It's interesting to consider the different attitudes countries have to PEDs - Britain has always had a very strong aversion to doping, both within the sports administrations and the general public, France and Germany are moving towards us in that respect. By comparison, the USA has often been prepared to turn a blind eye to doping as long as The Show goes on - surely the NFL is the most doped league in the world, and baseball got itself into a right mess in the 90s and 00s (and then you have Carl Lewis's covered-up positives). Spain and Italy, with the long history in cycling, have an attitude that's even more relaxed - it's almost accepted that their stars are doping, and the sports administration (and even the politicians) will defend their heroes.

Tennis? Well, I'm sure some are doping, and have my suspicion even about a couple of Top 10 players in both the mens and womens game. The testing currently done is inadequate, and a more stringent programme should be introduced (the bio passport is a good idea for detecting blood doping / EPO use). Remember that the main purpose of doping controls is not really to catch the cheats, but to change the 'risk v reward' of doping in favour of competing clean and in keeping the sport credible in the eyes of the viewing public.

what did you make of the oprah interview dh?

LS

I haven't actually had time to catch up with it yet. In a curious way though, I do have some sympathy for Armstrong in that he is being vilified for taking the same drugs that all his competitors were, and he was kind of right with his comment that taking EPO for cyclists of the 90s and early to mid 00s at least was little different to pumping up their tyres.

I think the USAD report was somewhat overblown - some comments such as 'the most sophisticated doping programme ever' smack of a sales pitch rather than a factual report.

Of course, Lance was also something of a bar steward to the rest of the peloton, which is part of why the whole house of cards collapsed in on him. By comparison, Indurain (whose performances in the early 90s suggest he may have been an early adopter of EPO) was always considered one of the 'good guys', who was quiet and respected, so no-one is interested in looking under that particular rock.

Dummy, you make some good points about the enforcement regime being needed in order to change the cost benefit analysis of athletes. One thing that I am enthusiastic about is that Djoko and Murray are both in favor of even more stringent regimes. I think at least that shows that the top guys maybe are not concerned about their own test results and gives me hope that in tennis doping is the exception and not the rule.

Of course recovery and fitness in tennis would be helped by some enhancement from drugs, but I just don't feel that the physical fitness barrier in tennis for the most part is as overwhelming as people make it. Yes you have to incredibly fit to chase down those shots for a long period of time and then comeback and do it 48 hours later. Yet, despite the protestations of some it is not the fitness that decides the vast majority of matches. And the level of fitness required by tennis while extremely high is not such that it would preclude a normal healthy individual from attaining it. And the cardio fitness is really just a base to work off, be as fit as a fiddle if you don't have weapons that separate from the rest of the tour you just won't accomplish much.

all players should be way more vocal about drugs, i don't trust any of them!

I didn't like novak's comments on LA as well.

In cycling wasn't LA the most vocal against drugs?
You posted a link on OTF of him even talking about it in an interview if I remember correctly.

I think players should be made to test in front of camera.

clear visibility