By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 9, 2016
"You have to be 100 percent sure of what's going on and if you're not then you've gotta be banned," Roger Federer said when asked about Maria Sharapova's two-year suspension.
Photo credit: Brisbane International
Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova are both former world No. 1 players, who shared the stage and conversation to launch the 2016 season in Brisbane.
The Grand Slam champions' paths part in reactions to Sharapova's two-year suspension for testing positive for the banned drug meldonium at the Australian Open in January.
Watch: Sharapova Hit With Two-Year Suspension
When it comes to Sharapova's suspension and doping in general, Federer strongly supports a zero tolerance policy.
The top-seeded Swiss was asked his reaction to Sharapova's suspension following his three-set win over Taylor Fritz in Stuttgart today and reiterated his stand tennis must adopt a zero tolerance policy in an effort to eliminate doping.
"I only heard the headlines, really, so I didn't quite get into all the details," Federer said of the Sharapova ban. "But to me, it's about zero tolerance, you know. This is nothing to do with anybody. But whoever does something wrong, there's zero tolerance."
In her defiant reaction to the ruling she called "unfairly harsh", Sharapova pointed out the independent tribunal "agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong" and vowed to file an immediate appeal.
"I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension," Sharapova wrote in a Facebook post. "The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport."
In contrast, Federer asserts intent is irrelevant, saying players found guilty of doping have "gotta be banned."
"It doesn't matter if they did it on purpose or not," Federer said in Stuttgart. "I don't really see the difference. You need to know what goes into your body. You have to be 100 percent sure of what's going on and if you're not then you've gotta be banned. Of course she's got the right to fight the case, everybody else as well."
Acknowledging dopers are often ahead of testing technology, Federer asserts anti-doping authorities should preserve samples for at least 10 years so that samples can be tested again in the future and "to scare away the people who think they can cheat."
The 17-time Grand Slam champion also supports stripping doping violators of titles.
"I'm for just for complete zero tolerance," Federer said. "I stay by my word we should be saving blood samples for 10, 15, 20 years to come. So you have to scare away the people who think they can cheat. You have to scare them so they will not do it. So they can retroactively be banned and take away the titles and so forth."
In its ruling in Sharapova's case, the three-member tribunal pointed out the five-time Grand Slam champion never admitted she was taking meldonium on the medical disclosure form she filled out while submitting her test sample in Melbourne.
Furthermore, the ITF said Sharapova never admitted she was taking meldonium on any medical disclosure form she filled out.
Asked why she did not disclose her use of the drug, Sharapova told the tribunal: “I did not feel it was a huge responsibility of mine to write all those medications down. In hindsight, this is a mistake of mine."
The 34-year-old Federer called the medical disclosure form that accompanies drug tests "pretty simple."
"Only you can fill it out," Federer said. "I'm never with somebody, I'm always alone. I'm the guy filling out my adddress. I'm the guy filling out what I took and sign at the bottom. Pretty simple."