ITF Chief proposes greater transparency on doping

Players who fail drugs tests and receive provisional bans should be named, according to the head of the International Tennis Federation, David Haggerty.

Haggerty, who was speaking to The Guardian newspaper, called for greater transparency around doping offences in the wake of Maria Sharapova’s failed drug test in January.

“We’ve discussed the possibility of announcing provisional suspensions, as a way to be transparent as to what’s going on,” Haggerty said. “I think that you’ll see after Wimbledon some announcements because each of seven bodies has to go back to their stakeholders and have formal approval of things.”

The move comes after Sharapova rocked the tennis world by confirming that she failed a test for taking the banned substance meldonium. In the fallout from that admission, it was revealed that players have been known to use injury as a means of disguising a failed test.

In response to these revelations, Haggerty is proposing a more ‘transparent’ set of processes: “I think what will happen in the future with provisional suspensions is it would become known,” Haggerty continued. “In theory, then, anything you hear means there is a suspension; if you don’t hear anything, there isn’t a suspension.”

To read the full interview in The Guardian newspaper click here.