Former US Open runner-up Greg Rusedski yesterday denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs and said he'd continue playing tennis in Australia before facing a hearing next month.
Rusedski, who was born in Canada and plays for Britain, had earlier issued a statement saying he tested positive for nandrolone. He said the ATP told him a urine sample he provided showed a low concentration of nandrolone.
"I am innocent. I wish to make it clear that I do not and have never taken any performance enhancing drugs whatsoever or any drugs of any kind," Rusedski told APTN on Friday at a hotel in Adelaide.
"I expect to be found completely innocent of all charges and I just want to continue to enjoy my tennis and play my tennis in Australia, that's why I've decided to come down here and play because I know I'm innocent -- that's all I have to say."
In his statement, Rusedski said "this is a very complex situation which, once understood, will clearly demonstrate my total innocence."
Rusedski, 30, will attend an anti-doping tribunal hearing on the case Feb. 9 in Montreal. He can compete until then, the ATP said. Rusedski faces a ban of up to two years if found guilty of a doping offense.
He flew into Sydney later yesterday to prepare for next week's Adidas International and avoided media after airport officials sent a car onto the tarmac to meet him.
Australian Open chief Paul McNamee said Rusedski would be welcome at the season's first major, starting Jan. 19 at Melbourne Park.
"He hasn't been found guilty or sanctioned ... we know there's been an initial infringement but until the hearing ... there's no sanction on him at all," McNamee said.
Nandrolone has produced a spate of positive tests in several sports around the world in recent years. In many cases, athletes said they took the banned substance unknowingly in nutritional supplements.
Petr Korda, the 1998 Australian Open champion, tested positive for nandrolone at Wimbledon later that season and was banned for one year.
Under international rules, athletes are responsible for any banned substance found in their body, regardless of the circumstances.
Rusedski lost to Cyril Saulnier 6-2, 6-2 Thursday in the second round of a tournament in Adelaide, Australia, his first tournament back since the Davis Cup in September. He played minimal singles matches on the ATP Tour last year after struggling with injuries.
Rusedski, who lost to Patrick Rafter in the 1997 US Open final, shares the record with Andy Roddick for the fastest recorded serve, 239.7kph.
News of Rusedski's positive test came just two days after Argentina's Mariano Puerta was suspended for nine months by the ATP for failing a drug test last year. Puerta tested positive for clenbuterol, whose effects resemble those of anabolic steroids by promoting muscle growth.
Australian Pat Cash, who coached Rusedski in 2001, said as a professional athlete Rusedski should know better.
"We will have to wait and see what the circumstances are. Perhaps he has taken it accidentally," Cash told BBC radio.
"I am surprised, but he is the sort of guy who would stop at nothing to better his career. He is very, very dedicated and when you have a run of injuries it's very, very tempting to take something to help you along."
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