Marcelo Rios on Agassi

by Savannah



Thanks to Craig for finding a translation of comments the Chilean former number one made regarding drug testing and Andre Agassi. It's little wonder that Chino was hated by the American tennis establishment.

Scandal in Tennis

Rios thinks that the ATP protects Agassi of doping "I know that if nandrolona were found on Agassi, they would not disclose it. He is a very prominent, very popular player and if he were to fall, the world of tennis would fall with him. The ATP would not say it. They are such a large dependent organization that it would be a problem if Agassi or Sampras tested positive", attacked the Chilean, ex- Nº1 of the world. The Marcelo Chilean Rios, ex- Nº1 of the world, accused the organization of the ATP of never openly disclosing certified drug tests on Andre Agassi. When commenting on the situation of dopajes of the Argentinean Mariano Puerta and, specifically, of the Englishman Greg Rusedski, whom respectively tested positive of clenbuterol and nandrolona, the Chilean not only lamented the incidents but accused the ATP of favortism. In his third radial commentary since the 2 of January on the microphones of Chilean Radio, Rios directly blamed the Association of Professional Tennis players (ATP) of not wanting to surface similar cases of doping of the more famous players, focusing instead on the "lesser" players of the tour. "[We]the South Americans have discussed it repeatedly. It is a complicated subject. I do not have problem in saying it: we always said (we asked ourselves) who publicly certifies the doping tests of Agassi or Sampras ?". The Chilean left-handed person remembered a case in Australia 2002 "where there was a control and Agassi disappeared, saying that they were going to kidnap his son..."

"I would love to be able to see and certify Agassi's doping tests because now I currently have no idea who is doing the test, and who decides who gets it and who doesn't."

"I know that if they were to find nandrolona on Agassi, they wouldnt say it to anybody. It would taint his reputation and bring tennis down dramatically. ATP would not say it. It is such a large organization that it would be a problem if Agassi tested positive ", he charged. The newspaper La Tercera consulted the ATP, in Pontevedra, Florida, and obtained an answer by them stating that "the procedures are very basic and clearly are specified for everybody on our website (www.atptennis.com) and it publicly states how many times controls to the players have been performed". "We do not have favorites nor do we hold something against the South Americans", said Greg Sharko, director of Communications of the ATP. In the offices of Agassi Enterprises, in Las Vegas, they avoided making any commentary until Perry Rogers, representative of the tennis player, returns from a business trip in Los Angeles.

According to the statistics of the ATP, during 2002 1,428 controls were made and amongst the most frequently tested players of that year, the Russian Marat Safin, the Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela, the Czech Jim Novak, the Swiss Roger Federer and the Swedish Jonas Bjorkman, appeared with ten controls each.

The translation was posted by tennis head undomiele HERE

I highlighted the Perry Rogers factoid because there has been speculation that Agassi revealing the meth information has to do with his split from his long time friend and confidant.

Update on Richard Gasquet

by Savannah

UPDATE

The head of the French Olympic Committee has gone on the record and asked for leniency for Gasquet.

Président du Comité national olympique français (CNOSF) pour encore une semaine, Henri Sérandour estime que Richard Gasquet, contrôlé positif à la cocaïne, devrait bénéficier d’un minimum de clémence pour un simple dérapage.
Henri Serandour (président du CNOSF) : « Richard Gasquet a péché et il va falloir qu'il assume, mais il va assumer. C'est un garçon qui a du recul sur ce qu'il a fait. A mon avis c'est sans doute un écart de jeunesse. Au cours de cette soirée, Richard était complètement insouciant et ne s'est pas rendu compte qu'il était en train de mettre un coup d'arrêt à sa carrière sportive. Alors bien sûr, les sportifs de haut niveau ont une valeur d'exemple et n'ont pas le droit à la faute. Le vrai problème dans ce cas est que l'on devrait tenir compte des éléments dans lesquels ca s'est passé. Or la loi ne fait pas de différence. Pour une première fois, on devrait peut-être avoir faire preuve de plus de clémence. Deux ans, c'est beaucoup. Il faudrait peut-être limiter la sanction à un an. Par contre, en cas de deuxième dérapage, pas de cadeau. C'est la suspension à vie. »

Henri Serandour President of the French Olympic Committee for another week, has asked that leniency by shown to Richard Gasquet who tested positive for cocaine. He has sinned says Serandour and he will have to pay the price. This is a young man who committed a mistake of youth. He was careless during the evening and he did not realize that his actions would put an end to his sports career. Of course athletes are held up as heroes and are not allowed to make mistakes. What happened that evening should be taken into account. The law of course makes no such distinctions. Two years is a lot. Maybe the suspension should be only one year. If there is a second slip no leniency should be given. This is the suspension of a life.

Heard Around

by Savannah

Seems like everyone has something to say lately no?
For instance Jelena Jankovic is handing Roger Federer a rather large cup of what the man pictured at the top is offering. She is quoted as saying the following by Yahoo Sports

“To be honest, I do not like to talk about players, I really prefer to focus on myself,” Jankovic told Reuters in an interview at the Paris Open.

She said she could not understand why Federer felt the need to hit out at women’s tennis while his great rival Rafa Nadal, who took over from the Swiss as world number one, was so “humble”.

“Why should he even care? I don’t like putting my nose in other’s business.

“I mean, one thing I like about Nadal is that he is such a great champion, he is so humble, always has kind words for everybody, he is a role model for everybody,” said Jankovic.

“Federer is a great champion, I don’t want to get in a fight with him but why does he care, I really don’t understand. Why does he need to do that?”

Federer also led the charge against Jankovic’s compatriot Novak Djokovic when he quit because of the heat in his Australian Open quarter-final match against Andy Roddick.

“I’m almost in favour of saying, you know what, if you’re not fit enough, just get out of here,” the Swiss said.

Jankovic said Federer should not criticise fellow players. “I don’t think it’s nice to attack other players.

“If he retired, he probably had his reasons, he knows better. You cannot attack someone when you don’t have proof, when you don’t have a piece of evidence.

“There is no reason to offend him that way.”

To my knowledge Mr. Djokovic has not spoken up in his defense.

Next up is Andy Murray who continues his criticism of the new WADA drug testing policy implemented by the ATP.

Andy Murray reiterates his complaints about the stricter whereabouts requirements of the anti-doping program. "This is the third time I've been tested over the past 16 or 17 days," he said at Rotterdam. "We have ten-and-a-half months of tennis and we're getting tested at least 25 times... I don't understand why we have to do it during tournament weeks when we're being tested anyway.

"'Why is is that only the Top 50 have to do this whereabouts thing. What about number 51?"

Murray had previously given the following details about a visit from the gestapo - uh, make that drug testers.

"I got a visit at 7 a.m one morning at my home right after I had travelled home from Australia. I woke up not really knowing where I was and suffering badly from jet lag. It seemed ridiculous to me as I’d been tested just four days earlier, straight after the match I had lost in the Australian Open.
“The official who came to my home wanted me to produce identification to prove who I was. He insisted on watching me provide a sample, literally with my trousers round my ankles, and then insisted that I wrote down my own address, even though he was at my private home at 7 a.m."

It's what our mother's always told us - one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. There has to be a happy medium, somewhere between people busting in on you at 7a and ignoring the guy shooting up in the bathroom. Just sayin'.

The French Press reported that Agnieszka Radwańska of Poland did not want to play the Paris Indoors taking place now. It's not fair to quote a loose translation but she says that she didn't want to play Paris she wanted to play Pattaya City in Thailand. The current WTA rules didn't allow her to do so because Vera Zvonareva decided to play there and she is ranked higher than Agnieszka. Tennis is an individual sport. Each player is an independent contractor. In my very humble opinion each player should be able to play wherever he or she wants. For instance there was talk about Serena Williams pulling out of Paris but it was pointed out that if she did she'd HAVE to play Stuttgart. Nonsense.

They're still yammering away about the Australian Open in the tennis press. I just wonder why everything I've read follows the following script: Roger has to do blah-blah-blah to beat Rafael Nadal.
If he had just done "x" or worked on "y" this situation wouldn't exist. Oh, and yeah, Rafa is a great player. Here are two examples.

Pete Sampras: "I've seen them play on every surface now, and I was really curious to see this hard court match.

"If I were Roger I would try to come in a little bit more, especially on my serve -- Rafa stays so far back. Just serve volley every now and again, just to put it at the back of his mind. [They] get into these rallies and as soon as Rafa hits the ball to his backhand, he's in control of the point and it's tough for Roger to keep up. And he came in and mixed it up less than what I thought he was going to try to do.

"He's close just the way he's doing it, he's a few points way from winning these matches, but I'm sure he's frustrated. He's playing fine, Rafa's just an animal. He guy can play all day, he can play at a high level for hours. To do what he did in Australia, play five hours two days before and come back and win the finals is incredible. You've got to tip your hat."

Andy Roddick (on Federer's emotional post-match reaction): "I think in sports you can certainly, you know, everyone can relate to being disappointed. I think the thing about, you know, kind of having to stay on for an awards ceremony and from what I read, I think Roger touched on it. Kind of going after a match, taking a shower, stretching, that's kind of all part of your routine to kind of cool down and to kind of almost try to grab a sense of perspective and get away from everybody watching for a second.
"When you have to go straight into the awards ceremony, you know, it's not easy especially after losing a Grand Slam final. I've been on the other end of that with Roger a couple of times. So I don't think it's surprising or out of the ordinary."

Martina HIngis acutally tried to do what Andy is suggesting here a few years back. Earned her the undying love of the French fans.

Kind of old news but Dinara Safina is setting up a training facility in the Croatian town of Varazdin starting in March, reports Sportske Novosti. Safina will finance the building of tennis courts that the town will also use as a training centre. This location is the hometown of Zeljko Krajan, Safina's coach.