By Chris Oddo | Thursday, April 3, 2014
Is the ITF doing enough to keep performance-enhancing drugs out of tennis? Their recently released figures indicate the answer may be no.
The ITF released the figures of its 2013 anti-doping program earlier this week, and while there is a rise in the amount of overall testing--and blood testing in particular--holes still remain.
Frequency of tests administered rose as a whole, the program conducted 2,752 total tests in 2013 compared to 2,185 in 2012, but only 132 of the 730 players listed by the ITF were tested out of competition during the year. Out-of-competition blood tests are considered by experts to be the best way to catch performance-enhancing drug users, but the program failed to test more than 75 percent of its listed players out of competition, including top 10 players Jelena Jankovic and Juan Martin del Potro.
Of the 730 participants listed, only 19 players were tested more than seven times both in competition and out of competition.
The ATP's big four were all given special attention, as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were all tested out of competition at least four times (the document quantifies testing amount as either zero, between 1-3, between 4-6, or more than seven). Serena Williams, Li Na and Maria Sharapova were each tested out of competition at least four times as well.
All players are subject to out-of-competition testing, but top 50 singles players and top 10 doubles players are required to participate in the ITF's whereabouts program, where they must make themselves available for testing one hour per day when out of competition.
But according to an article by Doug Robson of USA Today, there are factors that tend to make testing less likely for certain players. There is also lenience, as players are allowed to miss a certain amount of tests with no ramifications.
“Although 60 or so highly ranked players are required to provide their whereabouts at least one hour 365 days per year so drug testers can find them, a player is not charged with a violation until he or she misses three out-of-competition attempts,” Robson wrote. “They can miss up to two with no consequences.”
Robson spoke with Jelena Jankovic, one of the top 10 players who was not given any out-of-competition testing, and she said she believed that her decision to spend her off-season in Dubai may have deterred the testers from incurring the travel costs that would be required to test her.
Many top players, including Roger Federer and Andy Murray have spoken up for more stringent drug testing of late.