STARS WANT BETTER DOPING CONTROLS
THE Russian doping scandal has served to focus some of the most important minds in tennis on the issue, with Roger Federer leading the way.
As the world’s top eight players were paraded yesterday ahead of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, Federer broadly endorsed Andy Murray’s comments made to Sportsmail about the thorny subject.
Like Murray, the Swiss legend wants to see more resources allocated by tennis authorities to try to ensure that the sport maintains the trust of the public, avoiding the fate of cycling and athletics.
Rafael Nadal called for every test to be made public, while Novak Djokovic was more relaxed about the current regime that tries to stop the cheats with its limited funding.
Federer said: ‘I think you can always do more. It’s very plain what we should be doing — just more testing across the board. If ever you make the quarters of any tournament, then you should know you will be tested. It’s got to be very clear and simple.
‘I don’t understand that sometimes you have a run and you win a couple of events and the next thing you know, you haven’t been tested. It just can’t be that way, in my opinion. I am always surprised when I win a tournament, I walk off the court and it’s like, where’s the doping guy?
‘Players need to feel they are going to be tested often, shying them away from any stupid thought they might be having.’
Federer also demanded more out-of-competition testing, revealing that he had so far undergone five of these in 2015. World No 1 Djokovic reported that he had received ‘three or four’ visits at home from anti-doping officials this year. He felt that the daily whereabouts rule — giving your location for one hour every day — could be excessive at times, and that the current system was doing its job.
Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, playing in the doubles at the O2 Arena, last week fell foul of the rule when he decided to spend a night at the Paris Masters tournament hotel rather than return to his home in the suburbs, due to his match being scheduled early the next day.
He forgot to alter his timesheet.
Nadal was the most animated, and called for total transparency. ‘The only thing that would be great is one day we make the results 100-per-cent public,’ he said.
‘You ask: “Are the controls enough or not enough?”, and you ask these questions because you don’t really know how many tests I have or Andy or Roger has.
‘If, one day, the International Tennis Federation finally decide to make the controls public, it will finish all these questions in press conferences. I don’t want to be talking about it. Everybody will know how many we all have. People can decide if that is enough. Even me, I cannot say how many I’ve had this year.’
Murray’s concerns extend beyond the pure number of tests, which all run well into double figures for leading players.
‘Lance Armstrong said he was the most tested athlete on the planet and never failed a drugs test, so it doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything,’ he said.
With new leadership regimes in place at various parts of tennis’s alphabet soup of governing bodies, like the ITF and the Women’s Tennis Association, the likes of Murray and Federer may get their way soon in terms of extra resources.
Murray was last night having his first practice on the O2 Arena hard court and will not play until Monday afternoon, when his opening group opponent will be David Ferrer.
The Scot’s draw has been relatively benign, avoiding Roger Federer in favour of Stan Wawrinka as the next seed down, with Rafael Nadal making up their quartet.
Jamie Murray will open the tournament tomorrow with partner John Peers against the Italian duo Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli.