The doping rules these days are really tough. The basic principle is: first offence gets a 2 year ban, second offence a lifetime ban. Everyone seems to agree that doping is cheating, and those who cheat should be sanctioned, so if an athlete provides a positive sample in any sporting situation, the inference must be that they are cheating. Unfortunately, both for the athlete and the anti-doping system, that is not always the case.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is very open and transparent about all their past positive doping cases and publishes them on their anti-doping website (www.itftennis.com). There were 40 positive findings in the 5 year period 2003–2007, but it appears that in only 13 of the 40 cases was a prohibited substance taken to enhance performance. In all the other cases (67.5%) it was accepted at the independent hearings that there was “no intent to enhance performance” (19) or “no (significant) fault or negligence” (8). The breakdown is shown in table 1.

Let us look at these findings more …