ITF respond to call for more blood testing

[NadalDramaQueen]

Originally Posted by Clarky21

You would like 7 more slam trophies on Fed's mantel,huh? Lol.

I wouldn't want that, and I can't imagine that Fed would even accept them. It would be a terrible situation for everyone involved and the fans would have been cheated out of a lot of fair matches.

[sonicare]

guys, surely giving blood the night before a big match can't be good? does it have any effect on stamina, conditioning etc etc?

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by sonicare

guys, surely giving blood the night before a big match can't be good? does it have any effect on stamina, conditioning etc etc?

It's not like they're going to have draw out pints of blood or anything. One vial of blood will not hurt them in the slightest.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by NadalDramaQueen

I wouldn't want that, and I can't imagine that Fed would even accept them. It would be a terrible situation for everyone involved and the fans would have been cheated out of a lot of fair matches.

Maybe you wouldn't but lots and lots of *******s would.

[zebedee]

Originally Posted by chrisberchris

So what will happen if say a Grand Slam winner is found to be doping and it is proven that he was doping when he won the title? Does the finalist become the winner? I am glad that they are starting to become more attentive to the problem. I think we all will be surprised at names named, and names not named. I just hope it does not tarnish the image of tennis, and taint players that I love.

I don't believe there will be surprises. The biological passport will be quietly introduced. All players affected will be tested regularly over a period of several months to build the data for comparision and then the fun might or might not start. It will still require catching dopers offguard so that anomalous blood (urine too?) readings show up. Will the ITF have the budget to repeatedly go to players to take blood? Without this you still won't catch dopers and the grand slam tournaments, which is where the bulk of the money comes from, seem reluctant to finanace a proper anti-doping budget. That says a lot about the attitude of those who really command the game. I think the players that are doping currently will be more than aware of all this and will know what to do and how to circumvent. The passport should help to contain doping but I don't see how it will stop it.

[Feather]

Originally Posted by dudeski

Well there goes any chance of Nadal winning titles again.

Honestly speaking I suspect Djokovic more than Nadal. After the five hour SF with Murray at AO 2012, I thought Djokovic would be toast in the final against Nadal. However I saw Djokovic playing six hour Tennis and outgrinding Nadal, who has phenomenal stamina..

[Tennis_Hands]

Originally Posted by Feather

Honestly speaking I suspect Djokovic more than Nadal. After the five hour SF with Murray at AO 2012, I thought Djokovic would be toast in the final against Nadal. However I saw Djokovic playing six hour Tennis and outgrinding Nadal, who has phenomenal stamina..

Kind of like Nadal at the AO2009?

[joeri888]

Originally Posted by Clarky21

Maybe you wouldn't but lots and lots of *******s would.

It all depends on what happened. If one of them used and the other didn't, then yeah I would want them to be caught. If they both used, I want them both to be caught. If they didnt use, I want to see nobody get caught. In these situations I don't care about the trophies etc., but it would hurt a lot of it was found that Nadal cheated (other than MTO's and fake injuries and time violations and coaching of course )

[Ms Nadal]

They must do what they must. We don't want another Tour de FRAUD!

[Gorecki]

Originally Posted by Ms Nadal

They must do what they must. We don't want another Tour de FRAUD!

you mean that competition where the spaniard clients of the spaniard dr Eufemiano dominate?

[*Sparkle*]

Complaining about drugs testing is about as meaningful as complaining about airport security. It is annoying, especially as some security staff make a right meal out of it, or are rude, or they take away your tweezers, then make you pay through the nose for a bottle of water, and then you hear stories of journalists smuggling machetes and blocks of marzipan onto planes. etc. etc. The thing is, most of us realise there is a need for airport security, and take a certain comfort from it, but would like it to be better, and it will always be a bit annoying, and we'll probably always have a bit of a whinge about it. It doesn't mean we are terrorists hoping to sneak a bomb on board.

Drugs testing is always going to be a pain in the arse (or arm) for players, and they will complain if they don't see the point, or think their time is being wasted on silly tests that aren't effective anyway. What needs to happen is for their benefits to be explained, and to be sure that the clean players realise what can get through the existing system, and that it will benefit them to have a more effective system.

Onto the reason I dug up this thread - there was a feature on the BBC 6 O'clock news where they were interviewing someone at WADA about the need for more blood testing, and that certain sports (they named football, boxing and tennis) do a low proportion of blood tests compared with what cycling are doing now. He was saying (with prompting from the journalist and I paraphrase somewhat) that it's a joke that rich sports like football and tennis claim it's too expensive to do more blood tests. The journalist raised the point that Murray and Federer had both called for an increase in tennis, and then they interviewed someone from the ITF who was all ineffectual and said some bland stuff about how they might do more in the future. I don't expect any sporting body to admit that they might have a problem, but I don't see why they can't say they want to make sure it stays that way by using the best technology available to them.

Nothing ground-breaking was actually said, but I thought it interesting that they had a feature on it during the main evening news, and this was part of the main news, not the sports news.

[zebedee]

Here's the item you refer to, sparkle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/20517743

The BBC falls for the same old false argument about tennis being less at risk to doping because it is more skill-dependent than other sports.