Richard Gasquet has been given “time served” for testing positive for cocaine in March, and is free to return to tour immediately.
From the AFP this morning:
PARIS (AFP) — France’s Richard Gasquet, who tested positive for cocaine during the Miami Masters in March, was handed a two-and-a-half month suspension on Wednesday, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced.
Gasquet had been provisionally suspended in May following a positive test of his A sample and the B sample has come back positive, the ITF said.
However, the ITF added that the 23-year-old will be able to return to action as from Wednesday, with the ban retroactive to May.
The ITF said Gasquet’s sample from the ATP event in Miami contained benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine banned in-competition under the World Anti-Doping Association’s 2009 List of Prohibited Substance.
But the ITF tribunal accepted his plea of ‘no significant fault or negligence’, the player having insisted that the cocaine entered his system through inadvertent contamination in a nightclub.
The ITF ruled that a longer ban would have been disproportionate.
Gasquet, who eventually did not play in Miami because of a shoulder injury, also retains his results, ranking points and prize money from events subsequent to Miami.
This is good news for tennis fans! No one wins when players are disproportionately punished for trace amounts of recreational drugs in their system. The fact that Gasquet has already served more time than doping Dodger Manny Ramirez seems patently unfair.
Martina Hinigs retired in 2007 after she tested positive for cocaine, saying she had “no desire to spend the next several years of my life reduced to fighting against the doping officials.” The ITF suspended Martina for two years, with the ban lifting this October. She’s said that a comeback isn’t realistic at this point. (Wait, what’s that Adidas phrase, again? Impossible is Nothing, Martina!)
I am very interested to see if this relatively short suspension (though missing two Majors isn’t exactly a light punishment) helps motivate Gasquet and refocus his significant talents. He’s currently ranked #32 in the world and has had lackluster results for most of the season.
Tags: cocaine, doping, gasquet, Hingis, Manny Ramirez, tennis
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Hey FF, what’s up? I think he did enough time, too, for what I’m sure was just a lapse in judgement. I thought he was going to be a contender this year after the way he started the season with those semifinal appearances during the Australian summer. It would be a good story if he got in the mix and stayed there. Kid’s been through a lot!
Hiya, Van!
Yeah, I still can’t get over the Manny Ramirez thing, but maybe that’s a bad comparison. Tennis has one of the toughest doping policies, baseball has been notoriously lax. I guess I prefer the former to the latter, but still, it’s a little scary when it interrupts the career of a top player.
I’m really hoping that Gasquet uses this as motivation because I’ve always liked his game. But he’s also seemed to be one of those guys who has struggled with being a tennis player – unlike Roger – he just never seemed to really love being out on the court. Maybe having his career almost taken from him has made him realize how much he loves it.
Martina’s 2 year ban was ludicrous in comparison. ITF has absolutely no consistency in handing down these suspensions.
Happy that Gasquet got a reasonable punishment without ruining his career. But I’m not terribly optimistic about his ability to bounce back from this.
Who knows? Maybe he’s matured in the past few months. *fingers crossed*
I know! Poor Martina. We all got punished when she was banned!
Either he’ll bounce back or become even more head-casey. I guess either way it will be entertaining.