Tennis: Sharapova appeals two-year doping ban to CAS

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Russian superstar Maria Sharapova has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against her two-year doping ban, CAS confirmed on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old tested positive for the controversial banned medication meldonium during January’s Australian Open.

The ban, announced by the International Tennis Federation last week, is backdated to January 26 this year, when she tested positive for the prohibited substance.

“In her appeal to the CAS, Ms Sharapova seeks the annulment of the Tribunal’s decision to sanction her with a two-year period of ineligibility further to an anti-doping rule violation,” CAS said in a statement, adding that a decision would be made by July 18 at the latest.

“Ms Sharapova submits that the period of ineligibility should be eliminated, or in the alternative, reduced.”

If her appeal is unsuccessful the five-time Grand Slam champion will miss the Olympic Games in Rio in August while the earliest Grand Slam she could next enter is the French Open in 2018.

Sharapova blasted the ban as “unfairly harsh” in a statement on her Facebook page.

“While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension,” fumed Sharapova.

“The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

Meldonium was added to the world anti-doping WADA list on January 1. Sharapova said she’d been taking it for 10 years to help treat illnesses, a heart issue and a magnesium deficiency.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Djokovic and Serena Williams named ITF players of the year

LONDON - Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were named men's and women's world champions for 2015 by the International Tennis Federation on Tuesday.

The Serb ended the year as men's world number one for the fourth time after taking three majors - the Australian, Wimbledon and US Open, as well as finishing runner-up to Stan Wawrinka in the French.

Williams also narrowly missed a calendar-year grand slam, winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon and reaching the her home US Open semi-final.

Martina Hingis, of Switzerland, and India's Sania Mirza were named women's doubles world champions, with Jean-Julien Rojer, of the Netherlands, and Romania's Horia Tecau taking the men's award.

Hingis thus became an ITF world champion again 15 years after being crowned singles champion.

Dalma Galfi, of Hungary, and USA's Taylor Fritz were named ITF junior champions. — Reuters

After Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, leading tennis players to get their way on doping controls

Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and other leading tennis players calling for increased blood testing in tennis could get their wish in 2013 with the introduction of athlete biological passports to the sport.

In the aftermath of Lance Armstrong's admission last week that he was on drugs when he won each of his seven Tour de France titles, several top players at the Australian Open have revealed that they have received relatively few blood tests.





World number one Djokovic said last week that he had not been blood tested "in six or seven months".

The biological passport is a method of monitoring selected biological parameters over time, rather than trying to detect individual substances, and was considered one of the main reasons for the success in catching cheats in cycling.



"We're looking very, very closely at it and I think there's a reasonably good chance that will be operational probably towards the end of 2013," Dr Stuart Miller, the head of the International Tennis Federation (ITF)'s anti-doping effort, told BBC radio on Monday.



In 2011, the most recent set of figures available, the ITF conducted only 21 blood tests out of competition and 131 in total, a figure well outweighed by urine tests, which numbered 2,019.



At the Paris Masters last October, U.S. Open champion Murray led the calls for more blood tests in tennis, a view backed up in Melbourne by Roger Federer and Djokovic.



Blood tests are more expensive to administer than urine tests and Miller admitted that they were subject to financial constraints.



The Tennis Anti-Doping Program, which operates under the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) code is funded by the ITF along with the men's (ATP) and women's (WTA) tours and the grand slams.



On Tuesday, the ITF confirmed that the total investment in the anti-doping program was $2 million per year.

That included around $400,000 for the administration, paid for solely by the ITF, which covers staff, education, court costs and insurance.



Miller said tennis was doing everything it could to try to catch cheats.



"We are looking with our partners at the ATP, WTA and grand slams to identify areas we think we can improve," he said.



"We think we need to increase the proportion of blood testing we do under the program and we think we could also do with tending to increase the proportion of tests we do out of competition."



The ITF said it is committed to increasing its contribution in 2013 and former top-10 player Guy Forget, now the tournament director of the Paris Masters, said he believed drug taking was still happening in tennis.



"I don't think our sport is clean, I'm sure some guys are cheating," he told the BBC.



"I think it's a minority, probably, but that's why Roger and Andy are right to say we should put more money into blood tests and have more controls because we should fight this any way we can.



"I lost matches probably to guys who beat me with an unfair advantage because they were taking drugs.

"For sure it has happened. I can look in the mirror knowing I have never taken anything. But some guys might have done it.



"First of all some guys have tested positive, even if it's only a few, some have." - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com