Dinara Safina Denies Involvement With Doping Doctor

Written by: Staff on 25th October 2012

Dinara Safina Denies Involvement With Doping Doctor

epa02717637 Russian tennis player Dinara Safina in action during the match against German Julia Goerges, in the second round at the Masters 1,000 tennis tournament at the Caja Magica in Madrid, central Spain, on 04 May 2011. EPA/VICTOR LERENA |

Dinara Safina has denied to Russia’s Sports Express that she had any involvement with Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral, who was hit with a lifetime ban by the ITF after he was implicated in the Lance Armstrong case.

According to a report issued by the American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Garcia del Moral was one of the leaders of the American cyclist’s doping program. Armstrong was just stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and lost all of his sponsorships after the USADA issued a life ban against Armstrong. Officials claimed he was at the heart of the most elaborate doping scheme in sport history, one in which he pressured teammates to take performance-enhancing drugs and keep silent about it.

Garcia del Moral was on Armstrong’s team for five of his seven consecutive Tour de France victories. He practices sports medicine in Valencia, Spain, and in that capacity has worked with various tennis players.

Garcia del Moral worked at Spain’s TenisVal Academy beginning in 2006, with players such as David Ferrer, Sara Errani. Igor Andreev, Maria Kirilenko, Pablo Andujar, Anabel Medina, Marat Safin and Dinara Safina

“The doctor had no relation to the academy in Valencia,” said Safina. “He had the only clinic in Valencia where athletes were given physicals before the season and at the end. We ran on the treadmill, he took blood from the ear and so on. Such information is essential to our personal trainers. So there was a clinical examination, we got the results of tests and that ended our relationship. He did not give us any advice. I have nothing to fear – I’m clean.”

Topics: Dinara Safina, Dr Luis Garcia del Moral, Russian Sports Express, Russian tennis news., Sports, Tennis