The Ruling Bodies Of Tennis Formed An Alliance To Upgrade Anti-Doping

Written by: Staff on 13th March 2013

The Ruling Bodies Of Tennis Formed An Alliance To Upgrade Anti-Doping |

The four major ruling bodies of tennis, the International Tennis Federation, the Grand Slam Committee, the ATP World Tour and the WTA are currently patting each other on the back in the way they have formed an alliance in New York last week to upgrade the anti-doping measures in tennis and implement biological passports.

Such moves have been called for by leading players such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. However, one of the most respected experts in the war against the use of drugs wonders whether there is sufficient determination to make the new measures work.

Don Catlin helped form and then ran the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory for 25 years. He is now president and chief executive officer of Anti-Doping Research, a company in Los Angeles and has a simple message for the four major tennis powers.

“I would tell them not to bother,” Catlin said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. “They’re better off to increase the number of tests they do rather than spend it all on the passport. Doubling or tripling urine tests would be of more value than starting a passport because you need such a long lead-in. You need data over four or five years.”

Catlin believes tennis is reacting to pressure rather than tackling the big problems for the right reasons.

“It seems it’s because there’s so much flak in the newspapers that they’re trying to do something,” he said. “A lot of it looks like grandstanding – whenever there’s pressure, sport wakes up and looks to do something but then they realize later that it’s not really [changed] anything.

“It’s always hard to be critical of someone when they’re trying to do something that’s worthwhile. But if you’re only taking two steps when 100 are needed, it’s not going to work. If you started with the top 100 male players, that would be a good representation and then if you test them five times a year but tennis probably can’t afford to do that or doesn’t want to. If you don’t start with something of that magnitude, you’re not going to get far.”

The New York summit agreed to increase their contributions, lifting the overall budget to an estimated $3.5m which is still a minimal figure when compared to the fact Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka each received $2.5m for winning the Australian Open in January.

“They’re way behind other sports, in my opinion,” said Caitlin. “Doping is never going to go away; there needs to be independent testing.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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