The International Tennis
Federation will seek a one-year ban on Czech player Petr Korda, who tested positive for the steroid Nandrolone at Wimbledon in July but escaped a ban.
The ITF has come under attack for not imposing the one-year suspension as applies under its rules.
However, ITF president Brian Tobin said yesterday that the sentencing decision was made by an independent appeals body appointed by the ITF and did not reflect the ITF's wishes.
Tobin said the ITF is planning to lodge an appeal of its own, seeking a ban, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland within the next 10 days.
Tobin held a news conference yesterday after a player backlash against Korda's punishment. The Australian Open champion lost his 199 ranking points from Wimbledon and his #58,714 prize money.
Several players, including No.1- ranked woman Lindsay Davenport, demanded an explanation from the ITF and called for a ban to apply.
The appeals committee accepted Korda's excuse that he took the drug inadvertently. Tobin said he agreed with those players who believe the excuse was insufficient reason for Korda to escape a ban.
''I question if that is a legitimate reason for reducing the penalty,'' Tobin said. ''We did prove he was positive, and if it happened to me I'd say the same thing.''
He added: ''I'm only guessing, but I think the panel said 'okay, he hasn't taken it and he's had a good record in the past and we'll regard it as exceptional circumstances'.''
qOther tennis - Page 43
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article