Djokovic Goes After Doping Control Official In Troicki Case

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 7th October 2013

Djokovic Goes After Doping Control Official In Troicki Case

epa03893773 Novak Djokovic of Serbia raises his fist after winning his match against Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the second round of men's singles in the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, China, 03 October 2013. EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA |

Novak Djokovic was once a member of the ATP Players Council so he’s up on the pertinent political issues of the day. Now he has stepped out to defend his friend and Davis Cup teammate Victor Troicki, who is serving an 18-month suspension for failing to submit a blood test back in April during the Monte Carlo Masters Series.

World No. 2 Djokovic signed a petition that is asking the ITF to institute new rules for the anti-doping process. Troicki’s management team was the one that was said to have developed the petition.

Troicki said he was too ill to submit to a blood test in Monte Carlo and claims a doping control official, Dr. Gorodoliva, said he had have option of being tested the next day. Gorodoliva countered that claim and the ITF panel that heard his case sided with her. Troicki will appeal his case to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) this week.

“The whole case around Viktor is just very unfair towards him,” Djokovic said. “I believe that he’s innocent. He hasn’t been charged for being positive on any kind of substance. He was just accused of failing to provide the blood test that day. I know him since I was eight years old. We grew up together. He’s one of my best friends. There is no doubt in my mind that he’s innocent. I supported him from the first moment. I hope that he’s going to be discharged and he’s going to be able to play, because he’s definitely not guilty. What happened in that room on this day, for me, it’s very clear that he is supposed to play. I’m confident that he’s going to come back on the tour, hopefully already in the next couple weeks, and he’s going to be with us in Davis Cup final, because we wish him that.”

There appears to be little chance of that as CAS rarely reverses an ITF panel’s decisions so dramatically. While a reduction of the sentence is possible, it’s unlikely that they would pull it back to the point where he can play Davis Cup in a month’s time.

Troicki did write a letter to the ITF explaining the reason why he couldn’t take a test that day, but the ITF says that no one told him that by doing so he could be excused.

“Troicki did not properly take on board at the time her statement that she could not advise him as to whether his reason for not giving blood was a valid one, and he elevated her statement that he should put his explanation in writing to the ITF into something that it was not – he saw it as being offered as a potential solution to the problem, whereas it was in fact being proposed by her merely as part of the due process to be followed in such circumstances,” the ITF panel wrote in its decision.

Regardless of that, Djokovic says that he doesn’t understand why Troicki was suspended.

“For what? For failing to provide the blood test? He asked the lady that day, you know, he’s not feeling well. Can I provide you tomorrow? She said, Yes, if you write report.

He wrote the report, and the next thing you know she’s failing to say the truth in the court in London. She was saying that he was convincing him, that it took her 20 minutes to walk from anti‑doping office to the ATP office in Monte‑Carlo tournament, which is 20 meters. So she was lying a lot. That’s very bad for our sport. That’s very bad for anti‑doping agency, to have people who are responsible for this work to fail to say what really happened that day. There was another person present in the room that day that wrote a perfect English on the report, and then in the court in London he didn’t understand a single word.”

The petition that is circulating around includes language where a player can request an ATP tour official to be in the room if there is a dispute. The ITF is unlikely to object to that, but that likely won’t change the Troicki decision.

“The reason why I was the first one to write a petition for the rule change is to try to spread the awareness to the people around that obviously there is‑‑ it all comes down to who said what and who believes in who, you know what I mean?” Djokovic asked. “It’s just not fair towards the players, because there has to be I guess technology or a camera or an additional person in the room while you’re doing the test, because then ‑‑ the player has no really rights.”

Fellow player Tomas Berdych doesn’t know all the ins and outs of the case, but did venture that rules are rules and must be respected

“I mean, one day we have a rules which someone agree on them, and then you have to accept that,” Berdych said. “If the rules going to be different, then we will be accepting the different rules and we will go by different standards and different things that they are set. But if one day it’s said that not giving a sample means that you are positive, that’s kind of rule. If it’s a good rule or a bad rule, don’t ask me about it. I mean, it’s a rule. For sure I would like to change it. I would like to have it different. But these days it’s how it is. I mean, you need to be careful basically what you’re doing.”

Topics: 10sballs.com, Atp, Itf, Novak Djokovic, Tennis, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych, Victor Troicki

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ShagorikaP says:

October 7, 2013 at 10:12 am

RT @10sBalls_com: Djokovic Goes After Doping Control Official In Troicki Case: Novak Djokovic was once a member of the A… http://t.co/zO…