Tennis to catch athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. The International Tennis Federation said on Thursday that it would be implementing the program, which uses known data about an athlete’s blood profile to monitor for sudden changes that could be the result of drugs, this year.
While tennis has been spared the mass doping scandals that have plagued cycling, a few high-profile players have been caught using drugs. Last month, Czech player Barbora Zahlavova Strycova was banned for six months after testing positive for a prohibited stimulant. In an interview with the Associated Press, 11-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal urged authorities to make sure the new testing program was transparent.
“The important thing is that those who are cheating, pay for their cheating,” he said. “With Armstrong, the image of sport has been damaged, especially in the case of cycling. The important thing is for sport to clean up its image, that the controls are made public.”
Via