Wickmayer withdraws in Bali after year suspension
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP)—US Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer voluntarily withdrew from the ongoing Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions on Friday after receiving a one-year suspension by a Belgian anti-doping tribunal.
The 20-year-old Wickmayer was suspended Thursday for failing to report her whereabouts to anti-doping officials three times. She has denied any wrongdoing and said on her Web site she plans to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Stacey Allaster, WTA Tour chief executive, declined to comment specifically on Wickmayer’s case, but said the Belgian was handling the matter professionally.
“Yanina can appeal the decision to the court of arbitration for sport,” Allaster said.
“Beginning in 2009, WADA (the World Anti-Doping Association) mandated that all international Olympic sports federations and the national anti-doping agencies were required to implement the whereabouts program,” Allaster said.
The International Tennis Federation is a founding member of WADA.
“It is a fundamental principle that all of us in tennis share that we want to have a fair and clean sport for all players,” Allaster said.
Wickmayer had no comment.
“Because it’s an ongoing matter, it’s in her best interest to let the matter sit,” Allaster said. “The decision’s been made, and now she’ll deal with it with her legal advisers going forward.”
The Belgian anti-doping tribunal said in a statement Thursday that Wickmayer’s failure to live up to anti-doping rules required the minimum one-year suspension, which was “reasonable and justified.”
The tribunal also suspended men’s player Xavier Malisse for breaking the whereabouts rule twice and missing a doping test.
Wickmayer, ranked 18th in the world, has enjoyed a breakthrough year. She reached the semis at the U.S. Open despite being unseeded and having never passed the second round at any previous Grand Slam.
She won her first two tour titles at Estoril in May and Linz last month, earning her a spot in this week’s season-ending champions event on the resort island of Bali. She won her first round-robin match against Kimiko Date-Krumm, and was favored to reach this weekend’s semifinals.
First alternate Vera Dushevina of Russia takes the third-seeded Wickmayer’s place in the draw and meets Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues in round-robin play later Friday.
36 Comments
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You have 1st grade intelligence and 2nd grade grammar skills. If you weren't such a hater, you would probably do better with your English skills.
Now here is some Old English for you...Methinks thou art IGNORANT...GOEST THEE HENCE!
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This is spurious reasoning at best. Such supplements don't prevent you from testing positive by blood or hair for performance enhancing drugs, and these tests also detect products used to flush the system, like niacin. That's why testing positive for diuretics can get you in trouble as well. Also, just because something is possible doesn't justify any laws. It's also possible that she wasn't avoiding drug tests because she was positive. How does one qualify the rule as working well if it punishes the innocent? According to her, her login was corrupted, at least one of the times she tried and failed to notify the agency of her whereabouts- that is equally possible. The possibility of illegality isn"t enough to warrant punishment.
"Yanina also didn't do much until this year where her ranking has surged up towards the top. Maybe she needed the energy boost to train harder and get stronger."
Wickmayer has probably trained hard for a long time- if you don't already have the skills, steroids wont give them to you. Just because she moved up in the rankings doesn't mean she's a doper- some players just come into their own faster than others, and some just hit a good stride once in a while. Is Nadal a juicer just because he played so well at a young age? What about Seles or Graf, they got an early start too. Their rankings shot up pretty quickly too- it took only a couple of years, just as it has for Wickmayer, and she didn't even win the US Open.
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It IS Draconian!! I agree the yardstick by which everything is measured may now be "post Andre".
Who knows! Excellent question, who IS policing the WADA??? Seemingly no one is!
Something 'huge' must happen to bring everything into perspective! You would think we have had enough "huge" to last awhile, but apparently not so~
Everyone is losing right now, the players, the fans, but most of all the integrity of the sport itself is in serious jeopardy~
Live coverage of Fed Cup begins at 3:00 a.m. EST on TTC! GO USA :-)
Good night all~
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is joao French for 'j@ck@zz'? just asking...
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I knew Marion Jones was dirty form day one when she won those races. But this is Tennis and Marion Jones does not play tennis. We are talking about Serena and her outburst at the USO. All fines and penalities were paid. It's time to move one, from this OLD STORY. It's starting to taste like "Stale Bread" She won't be suspended, end of story.
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"Are you the same person calling for Serena's head? You moron! They should behead Serena but let the drug cheaters walk free?"
And...exactly where in the HELL did you see any of my comments asking for Serena's head? EVIDENTLY, you have me confused with someone else. I stand by what I SAID. Serena should attend anger mgmt classes because the tourney prior to the US Open she had an on court incident, and she should be fined by the ITF and perform a number of community service hours. Maybe...talking to the youth at tennis camps about 'how to or how to not' handle situations on the court while in the heat of the moment.
And...yes, I think Wickmayer's suspension is too severe.
I do have the right to my opinion with having to be subjected to being called a 'moron' just because YOU may not agree with me.
So IF you really want to know where I stand you simple@ZZhole, then re-read the threads and look for name...that is Capital K & B. with aren in lowercase.
You freakinidiot....next time...if you don't want me to call you out of your name, then please show me the same respect.
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I think the suspension is entirely too severe.
Are you the same person calling for Serena's head? You moron! They should behead Serena but let the drug cheaters walk free?
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Do you mean the USA athletes are the biggest cheaters/ dopers? Have you followed the sports history of USA? Have you heard of Senate/congress (whatever) (MLB) baseball inquiry, the NFL, the NBA? Not to mention how many US track and Field athletes have been banned and suspended for testing positive of whatever banned substances they took. Delores, i think you are the biggest bigot and hypocrite in this board.
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The reason why they want to know your whereabouts is so that they can test you at any time. There are supplements available that can remove all drugs from your system prior to a tournament. So if a player is on a 5 week break for rest and training, they want to ensure that you are clean throughout.
All the rest of the players are reporting all year round. They also give you 2 chances to not report a year. After the 2nd time, I would make sure that someone on my entourage is reporting my whereabouts all the time. This rule is there to keep the sport clean. We don't want tennis to become like cycling.
From what I know, Europeans are caught cheating using steroids a lot more than Americans in sports generally. Maybe she did use drugs and therefore didn't report her location. I am sure that there is a lot of thought behind the rule that we are unaware off. What if the rule has actually worked and she is on drugs? It is a possibility.
Sesil Karanchetseva (sp.) was 16 when she was banned for 2 years. She had moved up from 127 to 35 in the rankings real fast. Yanina also didn't do much until this year where her ranking has surged up towards the top. Maybe she needed the energy boost to train harder and get stronger.
#16 Vanessa, good post. Good comment "Fans can have favourites, but the WTA/ITF and the WADA should not."
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It's more like she was hanging out with "JUICINE" aka Justine. You know those Belgians, they are notorious for using performance drugs. Take a look at their cycling team, always coming up positive for some sort of performance enhancement drugs. They have always knowing for these type of wrong doing. They are the biggest cheaters in sports.
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Wickmayer had to have been aware of this rule. I do sympathize with her,however, because if the ban is upheld her potential rise to the top of women's tennis will be halted and she will have to start over. This will be very depressing and discouraging for her. But rules are there for a reason. No matter how much we like these players, we need to keep in mind that the same rules apply to all players. No exceptions should be made. Fans can have favourites, but the WTA/ITF and the WADA should not.
So far, Yanina has got the minimum suspension of one-year as stated above. We must await the outcome of her appeal to see if she will play at all in 2010. I wish her well and hope that she has a good support group during this time.
My fear is that we may see some overcompensation by the WADA, etc. that will affect current tennis players, because of what they now know about Agassi.
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