LIED TO CAS TO REDUCE BAN, ADMITS PUERTA

Buenos Aires, Aug. 4: Retired tennis player Mariano Puerta has admitted he lied to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reduce his suspension after a second positive doping test. Four months after the high point of his career — the final of the 2005 French Open — the Argentine tested positive for etilefrine, a banned cardiorespiratory stimulant. He had also been caught in 2003 for the use of a banned anabolic steroid.

Puerta was initially suspended for eight years, but the penalty was reduced to two years thanks to a defense strategy that he said “was a lie.”

“But I did not take any sporting advantage. I don’t want to be seen as a deceiver,” Puerta said in an interview published by La Nacion newspaper on Monday.

Puerta’s defense said he drank water from a glass used by his then wife Sol Estevanez.