Tennis

[Ticker]

he's a slam winner now. less chance of getting outed.

he played right up to the end of last season and played in the the IPTL in december. Presume there's no testing in IPTL but can't be @arsed to check. Last time he was caught he stopped playing immediately and we found out 3 months later. Don't think anyone would dope for IPTL or bother with it if in the middle of a program

I might be wrong but I think that there's no drug testing at Exhos.

 

[The Hitch]

Failed test maybe?

This is tennis.

When was the last time a gs winner tested positive?
Did that person then get banned or did they have the ITF cover it up?

 

[Ticker]

This is tennis.

When was the last time a gs winner tested positive?
Did that person then get banned or did they have the ITF cover it up?

Could have been a certain player in 2004, 2006, 2012. But the ITF are refusing to release such information. So yeah...

Suddenly, in this unfamiliar post-Armstrong and post-Fuentes world, such questions and discussion on doping have conversely become difficult to avoid. Most recently in the form of tennis consultant/manager Alan Moore – currently affiliated with WTA players Vitalia Diatchenko, Marta Sirokina and Anastasia Rodionova – who interestingly claims that six years ago an unnamed Croatian WTA player represented by his former management company was silently banned for six months after failing a drugs test.

Doctor Luis Garcia del Moral is best known for setting up the doping system for the US Postal cycling team, he also had more than a decade of guiding tennis players at the Spanish TenisVal Academy. A tennis player my former company managed went to train at TenisVal some years ago – breaking her contract to do so. She returned to Croatia leaner, stronger and with notable skin irritations. It came as no surprise that a random drugs test found her to have taken anabolic steroids, amongst other banned drugs. She received a 6 month ban and went back on tour. The governing body of tennis, the ITF, were informed fully of what had happened, yet in the 6 years that have passed nothing has happened.

Naturally, I automatically put on my imaginary detective hat and began perusing t’Internet for Croatian players absent from the tour somewhere around mid-2006 or 2007. The only 2006 year-end top 500 player to fall into this category was actually the one whose name immediately sprung to mind due to the 10 month (initially estimated 6 months) injury break she took in April 2007; everyone’s favourite ball-pummeler (and Marcos Baghdatis’ wife), Karolina Sprem. Still, there is no available information that links Sprem to the TennisVal academy or Moore’s old company, so the player in question could possibly be a non-Croatian national.

Of course, the identity of the player in question is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is that someone involved with women’s players and the women’s tour has disclosed an actual example of the ITF allegedly being actively involved in the much-discussed concept of silently banning a player, or else being aware of player(s) banned for doping and refusing to disclose such information. Interesting indeed.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130210002907/http://footfault.net/2013/02/05/sports-consultant-claims-the-itf-was-involved-in-silently-banning-a-female-player/

There is probably some truth to this. This isn't a surprise considering that if the Croatian media hadn't leaked Cilic's result the public would have accepted the knee injury story.

 

[zebedee]

This is tennis.

When was the last time a gs winner tested positive?
Did that person then get banned or did they have the ITF cover it up?

Up to 2011/2012, the ITF testing protocol in grand slams was loser-targetted i.e. winning players didn't get tested at all until the final round. This policy virtually ensured a grand slam winner never tested positive as you'd have been a complete mug to fail a test in such circumstances where you never got tested until the final championship match.

They're not dumb these boys in ITF anti-doping. After all the ITF's stated anti-doping purpose is, and I quote, 'to maintain the integrity of tennis'. There's no specific requirement to catch dopers. What better way to lessen the possibility of finding your grand slam winner had tested positive in an earlier round (and all the stink surrounding that) than not to test him at all?

The only case I know of where a grand slam finalist failed a dope test was Mariano Puerta at the 2005 French Open when he got popped for etilefrine. That was Puerta's second failed test and he copped an eight year ban, later reduced. It was fairly obvious to those inside the game that Puerta was a doper. His game in the preceding months had become massively explosive, only matched in its physical intensity by one other player on tour. Puerta was an anomaly, an accident waiting to happen.

 

[zebedee]

In 2010 Wayne Odesnik was caught by customs entering Australia with eight 6mg vials of HGH, an offence for which he later copped a doping ban.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=5087155

I'd be interested to hear views as to whether this quantity of HGH was probably intended exclusively for his personal use or is it possible or probable that he was carrying for other players besides? His stay in Australia would have lasted about twenty days. He didn't voluntarily withdraw his participation, evidently hoping to blag it, I would guess. He managed to play four matches in two tournaments including the grand slam event. He reached the quarters in Brisbane and lost in the second round of the A.O.

 

[blackcat]

In 2010 Wayne Odesnik was caught by customs entering Australia with eight 6mg vials of HGH, an offence for which he later copped a doping ban.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=5087155

I'd be interested to hear views as to whether this quantity of HGH was probably intended exclusively for his personal use or is it possible or probable that he was carrying for other players besides? His stay in Australia would have lasted about twenty days. He didn't voluntarily withdraw his participation, evidently hoping to blag it, I would guess. He managed to play four matches in two tournaments including the grand slam event. He reached the quarters in Brisbane and lost in the second round of the A.O.

i read that he was always on the outer of the pros in Florida. he was his own man. And Andy Roddick had a falling out with him when he was caught then went on smearing him.


this could have been buying from the Paula Radcliffe and Cavendish of piling in on the cheats to make yourself look in sharp relief of different character. so pile in on ricco, on russian runners...

so what i read could have been misdirection and obfuscation and deflection and any other words ending with the suffix tion

 

[zebedee]

By all accounts, the Americans shunned him in the aftermath of his bust, not just Roddick. And I can't think it was because they were so against doping.

 

[Andynonomous]

By all accounts, the Americans shunned him in the aftermath of his bust, not just Roddick. And I can't think it was because they were so against doping.

Odesnik was unpopular for "snitching", not being a doping cheat. Tells you all you need to know about tennis really.

 

[blackcat]

By all accounts, the Americans shunned him in the aftermath of his bust, not just Roddick. And I can't think it was because they were so against doping.

yeah, this is what i was clumsily ambiguously implying, but failing to imply

Odesnik was unpopular for "snitching", not being a doping cheat. Tells you all you need to know about tennis really.

i figured this, but not on the first reading, it was only in retrospect that i managed to discern the true dissembling and motive

 

[zebedee]

A couple of weeks ago he was thrashed by Andy Murray. Watch Nadal's game pick up now.

 

[robow7]

A couple of weeks ago he was thrashed by Andy Murray. Watch Nadal's game pick up now.

Worse yet, he got thrashed by a #127 34 year old qualifier who's getting set to retire. Ha

 

[peloton]

Worse yet, he got thrashed by a #127 34 year old qualifier who's getting set to retire. Ha

It's inevitable his game will improve the more he plays, d'oh. Even Federer struggled the first months after his mono break...

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Looks like Britain's Heather Watson has had a good winter's preparation. She puts her sudden improvement down to giving up puddings. Sounds like Djokovic's gluten free diet mark two. It's obviously unlikely that she will reach the heights he did but will still be interesting to see how she progresses.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/te...has-been-key-to-flying-start-to-the-year.html

 

[thrawn]

Looks like Britain's Heather Watson has had a good winter's preparation. She puts her sudden improvement down to giving up puddings. Sounds like Djokovic's gluten free diet mark two. It's obviously unlikely that she will reach the heights he did but will still be interesting to see how she progresses.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/te...has-been-key-to-flying-start-to-the-year.html

Yep, Heather Watson winning tennis matches is a pretty clear indication she's picked up/improved her doping program.

 

[the sceptic]

8/1 on Nadal seems very high since he can only be beaten by Djokovic basically.

No way Federer should be favoured over Nadal to win when they are on the same side of the draw.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Yep, Heather Watson winning tennis matches is a pretty clear indication she's picked up/improved her doping program.

No it's not. The fact that she has a ready made excuse for the improvement is. Does anyone really believe that a professional tennis player used to spend all of her free time gorging on puddings?

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

8/1 on Nadal seems very high since he can only be beaten by Djokovic basically.

No way Federer should be favoured over Nadal to win when they are on the same side of the draw.

Just shows, even the bookies are fooled by his fake injuries.

 

[Andynonomous]

Twenty three years old tennis player drops dead of cardiac arrest on the practise court.

We don't know the root cause of death (congenital heart disease, or PEDs), but with the recent allegations against Russian sport, this will likely raise some eyebrows.

 

[Bicycle]

Nadal's "form" seems to be building up nicely.

 

[robow7]

Obviously Fed's got to get with the program if he has any chance of keeping up

 

[Andynonomous]

Nadal's "form" seems to be building up nicely.

He always plays better, the second week of slams (when you play the better players). At 2011 Wimbledon, his serve speed kept going up as he went through the tournament, peaking in the final.

I am certain, Uncle Toni increases the doses of EPO, and Testosterone, depending on the quality of his opponent.

 

[Ticker]

It's inevitable his game will improve the more he plays, d'oh. Even Federer struggled the first months after his mono break...

Federer didn't take any time off for Mono. Not that it means anything.

Twenty three years old tennis player drops dead of cardiac arrest on the practise court.

We don't know the root cause of death (congenital heart disease, or PEDs), but with the recent allegations against Russian sport, this will likely raise some eyebrows.

Sudden, just like Montcourt. If it's PED related or not, no journalist would want to find out. Just look at Serena and her sudden Pulmonary Embolism.

 

[Bicycle]

He always plays better, the second week of slams (when you play the better players). At 2011 Wimbledon, his serve speed kept going up as he went through the tournament, peaking in the final.

I am certain, Uncle Toni increases the doses of EPO, and Testosterone, depending on the quality of his opponent.

I wouldn't be surprised, even though "injured" and "ill", Nadal will make the final.

 

[peloton]

Federer didn't take any time off for Mono. Not that it means anything.

He had mono in the off season

 

[Ticker]

He had mono in the off season

Yes I know, however when you said mono break I thought you meant he took a a break during the Tennis season a la Soderling. Every player has a break in the off season.