By Blair Henley / Monday, January 17, 2014
Serving a doping suspension is an experience no athlete wants to add to his or her resume. Find out how three tour players have handled their return to the court after facing the unthinkable.
Photo Credit: Metro.co.uk, Getty Images
Imagine walking into your longtime place of work and feeling like an outcast, like people are staring at you or talking behind your back. It’s an unsettling thought, and a potential reality for tennis stars returning to the sport after serving a doping suspension.
Three Cases, Three Different Stories
“Black Wednesday” at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships saw a record seven players retire or withdraw from the tournament due to injury. Then ranked No. 18, Marin Cilic pulled out with knee pain, or, at least that’s what he told the media. But the soft-spoken Croat was far from injured. He had accepted a voluntary provisional suspension from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after being notified that he tested positive for nikethamide, a banned stimulant, at the BMW Open in early May. Under ITF rules, players are not compelled to disclose a positive test unless an ITF anti-doping tribunal finds them “guilty” and subsequently imposes a ban.
The truth behind Cilic’s absence leaked last summer along with an explanation. After finishing off his glucose tablets during the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters in April, he sent his mother to procure a refill. She unintentionally returned with a tainted supplement. Though it’s important to view doping offenses, and the excuses they elicit, with a critical eye, it appeared that Cilic’s positive test was likely the result of an innocent mistake.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport would agree, shortening the nine-month ban handed down by the ITF to just four months. The 25-year-old would return to the tour in late October at the BNP Paribas Masters. Admittedly, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Would he be shunned? Would he be welcomed back?
“The reaction from all the players was really positive,” Cilic told Tennis Now at the Australian Open. “At the first tournament at Bercy, they were all very happy to see me. That was huge relief for me as I was bit worried how they'll all react. After two days, I was feeling that I haven’t even missed any of the tournaments in the last season as relationships between me and other players were the same as before. It meant a lot to me, definitely.”
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Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, a 27-year-old pro from the Czech Republic, served a six-month ban after ingesting a banned stimulant (sibutramine) in the supplement Acai Berry Thin. Before ordering the weight loss aid online, she called the company to confirm the “all natural” claim on the website. They assured her it was safe for an athlete to take. They were wrong. The ITF tested Zahlavova Strycova three times (both blood and urine) during the first three weeks she used the supplement. She was understandably devastated upon receiving the bad news.
“I got, like, six emails saying that I’ve been positive,” she told Tennis Now. “I was reading it, and I couldn’t believe it because first of all, I didn’t know where it came from. I thought I was eating everything natural.”
When she returned to the tour in April of 2013, she, too, was concerned about the locker room atmosphere.
“I was a little bit scared to come back,” Zahlavova Strycova said. “[I thought] the players would be looking at me, but they were great. They were really nice. A lot of players told me they are happy to have me back. Julia Goerges, Jill Craybas, Czech players -- they are really nice.”
But that understanding from fellow players is likely a direct result of perceived innocence. Assuming their stories are true, Cilic and Zahlavova Strycova are cautionary tales; those careless mistakes could have taken down any top tour player.
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The same cannot be said for American Wayne Odesnik. In early 2010, Australian authorities caught the now 28-year-old attempting to import eight vials of HGH into the country. The ITF initially imposed a two-year ban, virtually a given for such an offense, but months later shortened it to one year after he provided the governing body of tennis with “substantial assistance.”
Not only was Odesnik’s offense egregious and intentional, but with the “substantial assistance” revelation, players also saw him as a rat, a snitch. Making matters worse, Odesnik’s name surfaced again in 2013 during the investigation into the Miami clinic that allegedly supplied steroids to Alex Rodriguez and other top sports stars.
Odesnik lost in the first round of Wimbledon last year, but officials ushered him into the main interview room to face the media regarding the allegations out of South Florida.The line of questioning intensified so quickly – Did you have a relationship with anyone at the clinic? What substantial assistance have you provided? Will there always be a cloud hanging over your career? – that the moderator was forced to cut the press conference short.
And it’s not just media members who have questioned Odesnik’s place in professional tennis. Andy Roddick called for a lifetime ban.
"That's just plain cheating, and they should throw him out of tennis,” Roddick said. “There's just no room for it."
Another fellow American, James Blake, said he wouldn’t be welcoming Odesnik into the fold.
“I wouldn't say that he's at our dinner table too often, that he's at our card games too often,” Blake said in 2011. “I actually don't think I've said a whole lot to him since he's been back.”
If Odesnik, currently ranked No. 139, had won his first-round match at the 2014 Australian Open, he would have faced Andy Murray. Instead, he lost in five sets to Vincent Millot. Murray, who has publicly condemned Odesnik in the past, took a jab at the American when asked to comment on his second-round match.
“I'll try and watch a bit of video of his match from today to see how he plays,” Murray said of Millot. “But I'm glad he won," he added with contempt.
Odesnik may never publicly admit it, but the cloud hanging over his career, the one mentioned by the journalist at Wimbledon, is very real and, most likely, permanent.
Renewed Perspective
Cilic, Zahlavova Strycova and Odesnik all faced months away from competition; probably the longest layoffs they have had in their careers. But there is life after a doping ban. Each player – even Odesnik – emerged with a renewed outlook on life and sport.
“I have a different perspective, and also I have more fun and appreciation to be playing,” Cilic confirmed, even though his ranking currently sits nearly 20 spots below its pre-ban location. “To be that long away from tennis was mentally tough but I am enjoying my time on the tour much more than I used to. I feel it's a new beginning for me. This time, simple things are making me much happier, just being able to play and to be hitting tennis balls.”
Immediately following his return to the tour in 2011, even Odesnik forced himself to see the positive in his experience.
“You know, I'm 25, and there's still a lot of tennis to be played ahead of me,” he told SB Nation upon his return. “I'm excited. It's rejuvenated my career, in a sense, because I'm a lot hungrier. I'm working every day, as hard as I can, whether I had no ranking or I'm No. 150 in the world. So, I think in that sense, it's only going to help my career.”
Zahlavova Strycova has been back on tour for nearly one year and has worked her way back to a ranking of 84. The petite Czech took center stage at the Australian Open when she faced Victoria Azarenka in the second round. Though she didn’t pull off the upset on Rod Laver Arena, you can bet she savored every minute of the battle.
“I see some things very different right now,” she explained. “Tennis is a game and it’s a nice game. What happened to me, it had positive stuff because I could relax and I could think about the game, about tennis, about life. I enjoy it much more right now.”