Brett Reveals His Thoughts About Cilic’s Drug Situation

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 1st August 2013

Brett Reveals His Thoughts About Cilic’s Drug Situation

epa03688797 Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic reacts after winning a point against Spain's Pablo Andujar during their first round match at the Madrid Open tennis tournament at the Caja Magica pavilion in Madrid, central Spain, 05 May 2013. EPA/ALBERTO MARTIN |

Bob Brett, the well respected former coach of Marin Cilic, as good as confirmed that his ex-charge has tested positive in an anti-doping test and now awaits a ban from the International Tennis Federation.

Australian Brett coached Cilic for nine years since the 24 year-old was a boy and admitted to the Guardian newspaper in Britain. The pair spoke on the telephone earlier this week after newspaper reports in Croatia suggested Cilic, the nation’s top ranked player, failed a drug test while contesting April’s BMW Open in Munich.

“He said he had tested positive,” said Brett who split with the player a few weeks before the Munich event but maintained he always implored his players, Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic included, to be extremely careful with supplements.

“All through the years I’ve always explained the importance of not buying products over the counter because of the risk of contaminated products,” said Brett.

“They believe that everything is going to be OK. In a sense they are naive to the risk. The player hopes it’s OK and it’s not. They are then tarnished, sponsors are reluctant to sign them to contracts and promote their products.”

Brett, based in San Remo on the Italian Riviera, elaborated: “The one thing I found out was that he tested positive for high glucose and Marin had co-operated with the organization [the ITF] about the product and the pharmacy.

“One of the people in his team bought it in a pharmacy – basically what you’ve been reading in the papers. Some people will say he made a mistake. But it was carelessness.”

Brett maintains player naivety is the root problem in many cases and wants both the men’s and women’s tours to be more informative.

He said: “The [ATP and WTA] Tours need to help educate the players and people working with the players of the consequences and risk. Handing someone a pamphlet is like when you get something in the post; it tends not to get read. It has to be drummed into them.”