Drugs still rife in women’s tennis: Mendonza

Performance-enhancing substances are rife in women’s international tennis, Australia’s chief drug-tester said today, according to media reports. Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) chief executive John Mendoza said tennis authorities were living in a “fool’s paradise” if they did not recorgnise the problem.

“Tennis is heavily under the influence of doping and they are in denial if they don’t accept that,” Mendoza was quoted as saying in the Australian newspaper here today. Mendoza drew comparisons between tennis and swimming at Rome World Championships in 1994, when several Chinese women who won events later tested positive for drugs. “In 1994 it was self-evident that doping had taken over women’s swimming,” he said. “What Australian parent would want their daughter going into tennis?

“If you want to be number one in the world in women’s tennis you are going to have to be abnormal in body physique.”