Anyone else have an eerie feeling there will be a tennis doping scandal unveiled?

[Federer20042006]

I don't want to throw around accusations regarding particular players, but I'm not naive. Lance Armstrong and co. have piled onto the mountains of evidence that all sports are full of cheating. Well, if you can even call it "cheating" given how widespread it is.

If it comes to a point where we learn doping is widespread in tennis, it's also going to come to a point where all the top guys are implicated eventually.

Is there anyone here who is confident the vast majority of the Top 100 players on tour are clean? The more I learn about the prevalence of this in other sports, the more suspicious I grow of tennis players.

[Prisoner of Birth]

Originally Posted by Federer20042006

I don't want to throw around accusations regarding particular players, but I'm not naive. Lance Armstrong and co. have piled onto the mountains of evidence that all sports are full of cheating. Well, if you can even call it "cheating" given how widespread it is.

If it comes to a point where we learn doping is widespread in tennis, it's also going to come to a point where all the top guys are implicated eventually.

Is there anyone here who is confident the vast majority of the Top 100 players on tour are clean? The more I learn about the prevalence of this in other sports, the more suspicious I grow of tennis players.

I like to not think about it. I like the sport and the players too much.

[Jeffrey573639]

I certainly hope not

[Steve0904]

Originally Posted by Federer20042006

I don't want to throw around accusations regarding particular players, but I'm not naive. Lance Armstrong and co. have piled onto the mountains of evidence that all sports are full of cheating. Well, if you can even call it "cheating" given how widespread it is.

If it comes to a point where we learn doping is widespread in tennis, it's also going to come to a point where all the top guys are implicated eventually.

Is there anyone here who is confident the vast majority of the Top 100 players on tour are clean? The more I learn about the prevalence of this in other sports, the more suspicious I grow of tennis players.

I don't think about it when I'm watching matches. Never really thought about it before I started posting on this crazy forum tbh. Not that I don't think it happens, I just never thought about it until I started posting here, mostly because I don't think about it when I watch matches. If you spend all your time thinking about it you'll never enjoy the matches.

[Speranza]

Originally Posted by Steve0904

I don't think about it when I'm watching matches. Never really thought about it before I started posting on this crazy forum tbh. Not that I don't think it happens, I just never thought about it until I started posting here, mostly because I don't think about it when I watch matches. If you spend all your time thinking about it you'll never enjoy the matches.

So what are you saying? That you don't think about it when you're watching matches?

[Jeffrey573639]

Well I think if there is such a scandal and it involves the top players i.e. Fed, Nads, Djoko it would absolutely tear tennis apart- a thousand times worse than what happened to cycling if that's even possible. But that being said I also think we should have a bit of faith in Rog, Rafa and Novak and the rest of the tour

[hedera]

I don't really care if any one of them uses PED. It would not change my opinion of them because they are all great athletes and I'm sure that no matter what kind of substance they might be using it hasn't miraculously turned them into super humans. There is still hard work behind it all.

The rules in place against certain substances are an arbitrary system. What might be banned today, could easily be allowed tomorrow. So who is to decide what is wrong, bad, good etc.? All it takes is a change in perspective.

I would allow it. Demonizing certain substances only results in pointlessly judging great athletes who most likely would've stood apart from their peers anyway, with or without PED.

[Steve0904]

Originally Posted by hedera

I don't really care if any one of them uses PED. It would not change my opinion of them because they are all great athletes and I'm sure that no matter what kind of substance they might be using it hasn't miraculously turned them into super humans. There is still hard work behind it all.

The rules in place against certain substances are an arbitrary system. What might be banned today, could easily be allowed tomorrow. So who is to decide what is wrong, bad, good etc.? All it takes is a change in perspective.

I would allow it. Demonizing certain substances only results in pointlessly judging great athletes who most likely would've stood apart from their peers anyway, with or without PED.

I agree. I really don't care if any one of the top 4 (using them because they're the most important) is doping. To me anyway, it's quite obvious that all 4 of them have immense amounts of talent that is greater than everybody else with or without PED's. The whole Armstrong thing is a sham anyway. Yes he cheated, and he got caught, but I'd say 95% maybe more are using in cycling. I'm far from an Armstrong apologist, but the fact that he won 7 TDF using drugs just shows me he was the best among users which as I said is probably almost everybody in cycling. So what makes anybody think that he wouldn't win 7 TDF if everybody was clean including himself?

[Crisstti]

Way to start a thread about nothing...

There's no comparison with cycling anyway.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by Crisstti

Way to start a thread about nothing...

There's no comparison with cycling anyway.

Behind the scenes, I'm sure tennis has a whole lot more in common with cycling than you think

[dafinch]

Originally Posted by Steve0904

I agree. I really don't care if any one of the top 4 (using them because they're the most important) is doping. To me anyway, it's quite obvious that all 4 of them have immense amounts of talent that is greater than everybody else with or without PED's. The whole Armstrong thing is a sham anyway. Yes he cheated, and he got caught, but I'd say 95% maybe more are using in cycling. I'm far from an Armstrong apologist, but the fact that he won 7 TDF using drugs just shows me he was the best among users which as I said is probably almost everybody in cycling. So what makes anybody think that he wouldn't win 7 TDF if everybody was clean including himself?

Well, I dunno, the fact that Armstrong HIMSELF said he didn't think he could have won all those titles without doping is a pretty good indication to ME, lol. That Armstrong is a PED abuser is finally a FACT, your remark about 95% of the tour being juiced is pure conjecture, nothing more. The assumption that because there are a few bad apples means they are ALL doping is ludicrous, IMO.

[rajah84]

Originally Posted by hedera

I don't really care if any one of them uses PED. It would not change my opinion of them because they are all great athletes and I'm sure that no matter what kind of substance they might be using it hasn't miraculously turned them into super humans. There is still hard work behind it all.

The rules in place against certain substances are an arbitrary system. What might be banned today, could easily be allowed tomorrow. So who is to decide what is wrong, bad, good etc.? All it takes is a change in perspective.

I would allow it. Demonizing certain substances only results in pointlessly judging great athletes who most likely would've stood apart from their peers anyway, with or without PED.

But what about players who's primary weapon is fitness like Nadal and Djokovic? You could then rationalize that Rafa and Novak never beat Roger.

[*Sparkle*]

I think some people would love there to be a scandal. Some because they get their thrills from the thought of scandals, and conspiracies, and then there is the cycling community who is desperate for another sport to come under the spotlight and take the heat off of them.

Tennis is an obvious target, due to the big money involved, and the tennis authorities don't help by not being pro-active enough with their anti-doping policies, but I still think most players are clean. If I genuinely believed a substantial number were doping without getting caught, I couldn't keep watching. I don't really understand people who are convinced they are all at it, who still seem to follow the sport.

[The Bawss]

Can we PLEASE stop going on about Djokovic's 2011 season!? Come one people he went gluten-free, hello? There are probably loads of medical reports that gluten-free diets boost performance by about 100%. I can't believe the sheer number of jealous haters on here.

[Jeffrey573639]

Originally Posted by The Bawss

Can we PLEASE stop going on about Djokovic's 2011 season!? Come one people he went gluten-free, hello? There are probably loads of medical reports that gluten-free diets boost performance by about 100%. I can't believe the sheer number of jealous haters on here.

Who mentioned Djokovic 2011?

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey573639

Who mentioned Djokovic 2011?

I think his post was littered with sarcasm. By saying "lets stop talking about Djokovic", he implied Djokovic was doping without actually accusing him.

[The Bawss]

Originally Posted by McLovin

I think his post was littered with sarcasm. By saying "lets stop talking about Djokovic", he implied Djokovic was doping without actually accusing him.

Glad to see at least someone is awake.

[BreakPoint]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey573639

Who mentioned Djokovic 2011?

How about Djokovic 2012 Australian Open? What he did was not humanly possible. Just ask Lance Armstrong.

[v-verb]

Originally Posted by The Bawss

Can we PLEASE stop going on about Djokovic's 2011 season!? Come one people he went gluten-free, hello? There are probably loads of medical reports that gluten-free diets boost performance by about 100%. I can't believe the sheer number of jealous haters on here.

LOL too funny!!!!!

[droliver]

Originally Posted by The Bawss

Can we PLEASE stop going on about Djokovic's 2011 season!? Come one people he went gluten-free, hello? There are probably loads of medical reports that gluten-free diets boost performance by about 100%.

The whole gluten-free thing is more religion then science in most instances. Novak clearly did not have celiac sprue (the disease where your small intestine is sensitized to glutens) suddenly develop in his mid 20's as an elite athlete. The more plausible explanation is that he was more experienced and started paying more attention to his training and diet such that his marginal game improvement was enough to be the difference between #3 and #1.

The gluten issue probably just plays into his psychological preparation to compete at that level. But hey, whatever works!