Top tennis players including Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal are in open revolt at what they consider to be intrusive new anti-doping rules that demand testers know their location every day.
Players jeered representatives of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) when details of the stringent regulations were announced at a stormy meeting at the Australian Open in Melbourne last month. One player walked out and others questioned ITF officials on the mandatory requirement of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Under Wada’s ruling, athletes must report where they are for one hour of each day for the whole year so that investigators can call at any time, unannounced. Anyone who misses three tests in an 18-month period could be suspended for up to two years.
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“These new rules are so draconian that it makes it almost impossible to live a normal life,” the British No 1 said. “I got a visit at 7am one morning at my home right after I had travelled home from Australia. I woke up not really knowing where I was and suffering badly from jet lag. It seemed ridiculous to me as I’d been tested just four days earlier, straight after the match I had lost in the Australian Open.
“The official who came to my home wanted me to produce identification to prove who I was. He insisted on watching me provide a sample, literally with my trousers round my ankles, and then insisted that I wrote down my own address, even though he was at my private home at 7am.”
Athletes need not be treated like (worse than?) criminals on parole just to keep the sport clean. Dopers will dope no matter how stringent the rules. Undetectable performance enhancing drugs will continue to be invented.
The Bryan Brothers spoke at length about the new rules in Melbourne.
Q. Could you talk about the challenges of the new drug testing regime.
BOB BRYAN: Yeah, it's pretty strict. We got tested a few times when we were home. The tough thing is you got to be worried to go to breakfast at 8 in the morning. You got to wait it out and stay until 9. If you're clear, you can go eat breakfast. You always got to kind of be on‑call. I guess it's the responsibility of a professional athlete.
It's a little bit brutal. They can't call you. I guess that's the rule now. We have one or two missed tests, so we got to be really aware of what we're doing and make sure.
MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, you got to communicate with whoever it is, the ITF, where you're going to be at all times. They even want to know when you're flying in, the day you arrive, if you're going to be at the hotel for an hour.
We missed a couple. Just weren't thinking. Just down in L.A. One time I got a flat tire. But, yeah, you just got to be ready for anything.
Q. They just knock on the door?
MIKE BRYAN: Yeah, they just knock on the door.
BOB BRYAN: Knock on the door. If you're not there... They used to call you, and you have one hour. That's usually enough time to get to the house. But now they don't call you.
Mike missed a test. He was just at breakfast. Just had an extra long breakfast.
MIKE BRYAN: Every time we're home, they're usually there, one of the days. I think we got tested 15 to 20 times last year. It's either USADA or the ITF. Yeah, you just got to be home.
Q. Can you not miss another test?
MIKE BRYAN: I think I have ‑‑ April ‑‑
BOB BRYAN: Until April he's got to be clean.
MIKE BRYAN: But I'm sure I can appeal because this body doesn't look like a 'roided‑out body.
Q. Rafa described it in Spanish as intolerable harassment, and Roger says it's a necessary evil. Where do you come down on that?
BOB BRYAN: I don't know. I think once someone gets banned for missing a few tests, then you hear the stories and they're kind of ridiculous stories, then I think we'll probably have a problem with it. If it's one of our friends that goes out, if Mike gets banned...
MIKE BRYAN: I think it has to be done, though. It's fair across the board. You don't want doping in tennis. The fans definitely don't want anyone playing that's ‑‑
BOB BRYAN: ‑‑ cheating.
MIKE BRYAN: It's good. I think we just got to get used to the strictness.
BOB BRYAN: The strictness.
Q. Was it really a flat tire?
MIKE BRYAN: I missed a couple. One of them, I think I got a flat tire. I was trying to make my way back up from L.A. One I decided to take my girlfriend to San Francisco for a day. I wasn't thinking. I didn't call my agent or the ITF.
Q. Do you feel targeted by the drug testing or is it everyone?
BOB BRYAN: It's everyone.
MIKE BRYAN: They're not coming after any one individual player. I'm pretty sure it's fair across the board.
What brought this on? There haven't been any high-profile doping scandals in tennis, so why the need for even more stringency?
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