THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, NO. 64

ATP player council reps not standing behind Rusedski
Martin: 'There is sympathy for Greg, but the onus is on the players'

By Eleanor Preston
Special to tennisreporters.net

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN – Whatever Greg Rusedski is saying at the moment, he seems to be finding allies hard to come by as he fights to clear his name.

Ever since Rusedski announced 10 days ago that he tested positive for nandrolone during the Indianapolis tournament last July, he has repeatedly insisted that the he is getting nothing but support from his colleagues in the locker room. Yet, one by one, prominent players appear to be showing more faith in the anti-doping authorities than they do in Rusedski.

Todd Martin, president of the ATP Players' Council, made it clear after Saturday's pre-Australian Open player meeting that he would not protest if Rusedski was handed the maximum sentence by an independent tribunal on February 9.

"We operate under World Anti-Doping Agency rules and that allows for a maximum two-year suspension," said Martin. "If the tribunal feels that is right then I am comfortable with that. Equally if they feel a more lenient sentence is appropriate, I'd be comfortable with that, too. There is sympathy for Greg but the onus is on the players to monitor what goes into our bodies. It's up to us to exhibit the same level of professionalism off the court as we do on it. Slowly but surely we are getting that message across to the players but, unfortunately, that message sometimes comes across in dramatic fashion."

Todd Woodbridge, Martin's deputy on the players' council, went even further last week, criticizing Rusedski's decision to go public about his positive test so early in the legal process.

"What he has done is shown the players this isn't the way to go about fighting a drug case and I'm a little disappointed that he came out with it," said Woodbridge. "He has made it very difficult for himself. He is basically putting himself on trial to the public. I think that was the wrong way to go about it. He would have had better support in the locker room if he hadn't broken it the way he did. I think that was unwise."

Martin, Woodbridge and a host of other high profile players – Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi among them – have professed their faith in tennis' anti-doping procedures, the same procedures that Rusedski is calling into question as part of his defense.

ULIHRACH DEFENDS RESEDSKI
However, Czech Bohdan Ulihrach – who had his suspension for a similar "offense" dropped last summer after the ATP found it may have given him a contaminated substance – has shown support for Rusedski.

Rusedski claims that he has been unfairly singled out by the ATP after the seven other players who have tested positive for nandrolone since August 2002 went unpunished after it emerged that suspected the nandrolone might have come from electrolyte supplements handed out by ATP trainers.
The ATP stopped its trainers from handing out supplements on any kind in May 2003 during the tournament in St. Poelten. Rusedski tested positive two months later and claims his sample showed the same analytical fingerprint as the seven other positive tests and 39 other samples, which showed similarly elevated levels of nandrolone.

ATP CEO Mark Miles addressed the players' meeting in Melbourne on Saturday night, where the topic of anti-doping was top of the agenda, and afterwards said that any player who takes supplements of any kind would be taking a gamble.

Miles would not talk specifically about Rusedski's case, but said that any player taking supplements was putting his career on the line. "I have stood up three years in a row and said, 'Look guys, if you take supplements you take a risk,' " said Miles, after addressing the players' meeting. "There are two or three drinks that we know are individually packaged and sealed and are safe but if you break away from that list then the risk increases dramatically."

All in the all, the message to Rusedski is clear: His only chance of avoiding a probable two-year-ban is if he can prove that he was accidentally doped by ATP staff, something which an independent enquiry lead by Richard Young singularly failed to prove last summer. The Young report stated that it could not categorically rule out the possibility that ATP staff had been handing out contaminated supplements, but it was short on the kind of conclusive proof Rusedski needs to get him off the hook.

Woodbridge summed up the Briton's predicament. "If I can't tell you how I got a substance in my system, even if it was a contaminated supplement, then I am in the wrong," said Woodbridge. "That is what our rules say. There are no ifs or buts, it is clear. It is the same system that tests in athletics, we go through exactly the same thing, the same tribunals are put together independently. If Greg can prove he has taken something that somebody else in the ATP gave him then that's fine, otherwise he is responsible, plain and simple."