Use of performance enhancing drugs in tennis

Alipan 12 Feb 2013 11:23:13 733 posts
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Im starting to feel a bit suspicious about the use of performance enhancing drugs in tennis.

There has been a few whispers about this recently in the press and insinuations that the doctors involved in the cycling scandal were also helping tennis players.

I guess Djokovic is the most glaring example. In his early twenties he was notorious for pulling out of big matches with various ailments, heat exhaustion etc.. Now he seems superhuman which I think he puts down to switching to a ‘gluten free diet’. Can this really make such a drastic change?

Some of the marathon grand slam finals we have seen recently – I mean Im just not sure if I can believe what Im seeing anymore. At least Murray has the decency to look knackered – Djokovic and Nadal seem to come from another planet.

Opinions?

Edited by Alipan at 11:24:01 12-02-2013

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Deckard1 12 Feb 2013 11:25:54 18,005 posts
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Murray only looks knackered because of the heroin withdrawal.

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speedofthepuma 12 Feb 2013 11:26:25 12,892 posts
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Murray has equally become a lot "stronger" over the last few years, no reason to presume he is less likely to be cheating compared to the rest apart from bitterness that Djokovic beats him a lot IMO.

I've turned off all the avatars and crap, so don't expect me to be impressed by yours.

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neilka 12 Feb 2013 11:27:52 11,984 posts
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Sportsmen being cheating cunts!?!?!?

if you have nothing intresting to say then you might as well just throw your bags on the truck and drive away

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Mola_Ram 12 Feb 2013 11:27:55 2,358 posts
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I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until there's evidence to suggest I shouldn't.

Not sure how strict the testing regime is in tennis, but I'd imagine it would be pretty bloody strict. Of course that doesn't mean nothing is happening, but yeah... evidence.

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Psychotext 12 Feb 2013 11:36:44 49,178 posts
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Mola_Ram wrote:
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until there's evidence to suggest I shouldn't.

There's already plenty of that.

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Venatio Gaming Manager, Gamer Network 12 Feb 2013 11:38:37 4,355 posts
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There's an entire blog dedicated to this although a lot of his / her evidence amounts to photos of tennis players looking a bit muscly.

"sounds like a public school ponce"

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TheSaint 12 Feb 2013 11:38:50 11,597 posts
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Shame they don't have any personality enhancing drugs for Murray.

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Mola_Ram 12 Feb 2013 11:41:02 2,358 posts
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Has there been an official inquest or court case or something I missed? Or is it just rumour right now?

Serious question. If there is something, I'm more than happy to swing towards doubt. I'm not one of those deluded idiots who clinged on Lance Armstrong until the very end and beyond.

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oceanmotion 12 Feb 2013 11:44:30 13,149 posts
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I don't think they test for that blood doping you hear about in Cycling. Murray has said before they need to test more in tennis.

Djokovic, who knows but something I noticed in the Olympics, he died on his arse. Why would that be compared to others and his usual standard, they test for drugs a lot more in the Olympics and he would get caught. Also could be nothing more than out of season performance.

Until Tennis authorities have more wide reaching drug tests, you will never know.

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MrTomFTW Moderator 12 Feb 2013 11:46:51 31,241 posts
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Make performance enhancing drugs mandatory. Problem solved.

Follow me on Twitter: @MrTom
Voted by the community "Best mod" 2011 and 2012.

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kalel 12 Feb 2013 11:46:59 76,450 posts
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I'd say Murray is the one to worry most about tbh. He's gone from being shit to not shit alarmingly quickly.

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spleendonkey 12 Feb 2013 11:50:52 9 posts
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If Nadal isn't on something I would be incredibly surprised. He should be (and largely is) suspicious person number 1 in tennis. The types of injuries he gets, the two/three long absences, his abnormal physique (for a tennis player), plus Spain until recently always refused to sign up to the World Doping Authority regulations...steroids historically have been a huge problem in Spanish sport.

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craigy Senior Developer, Gamer Network 12 Feb 2013 11:52:04 6,663 posts
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@TheSaint glol

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Mola_Ram 12 Feb 2013 11:53:31 2,358 posts
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Agassi tried meth once. Well, once according to him. Wouldn't really be performance enhancing though

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Trane 12 Feb 2013 11:56:14 3,711 posts
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kalel wrote:
I'd say Murray is the one to worry most about tbh. He's gone from being shit to not shit alarmingly quickly.

Hm

I don't recall a time when Murray could be described as 'shit'. Just the usual uneducated plebs who watch nothing except week 2 of wimbly every year seem to think that.

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Alipan 12 Feb 2013 11:57:52 733 posts
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Agassi Im not sure about - I mean he did have a massive dip in his twenties before a suspicious Linford Christie style renaissance later in his career. But that was maybe down to a lifestyle change as he says who knows?

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senso-ji 12 Feb 2013 12:00:56 4,539 posts
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Not sure the top Tennis players in the world are scared of being caught as they're the ones asking for more testing:

Federer wants more Drug tests

Djokovic complained that the number of Drugs tests were going down.

Murray wants more money spent of Drug testing programs in Tennis

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Armoured_Bear 12 Feb 2013 12:19:29 3,927 posts
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kalel wrote:
I'd say Murray is the one to worry most about tbh. He's gone from being shit to not shit alarmingly quickly.

That's complete nonsense.

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Alipan 12 Feb 2013 12:27:46 733 posts
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@senso-ji
Thanks for posting those. But I mean if asked about drug testing what else would they say? From that article Im not sure of the context of the Djokovic complaint - was it a direct complaint to the Tennis governing body or a response to a question from the media.

Followed another link from those articles and this reminded me of another sport...

"The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) said it could not comment on Agassi's drug-taking revelation because it had withdrawn its doping case against him.

Agassi had lied to them that the use of the drug was accidental - and the failed test was kept secret by the ATP."

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President_Weasel 12 Feb 2013 12:40:00 7,736 posts
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It's something Bill Simmons mentioned recently in a column: everything in sport is tainted with suspicion now. How can we be sure they're really better players and not just better cheats.

A ridiculous and oppressive (and competent, for a change) drug testing regime is probably the way to go.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8904906/daring-ask-ped-question

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Dougs 12 Feb 2013 12:42:42 59,065 posts
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There are lots of rumours that Fuentes et al could blow most sports out of the water, especially in Spain.

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Load_2.0 12 Feb 2013 12:49:39 14,570 posts
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Murray and his radical performance boost are certainly worthy of a lot closer scrutiny.

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ram 12 Feb 2013 12:52:02 3,423 posts
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What radical performance boost?

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Psychotext 12 Feb 2013 12:53:07 49,178 posts
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I'm assuming these guys don't get tested in the off season? Perfect opportunity to snack on as many drugs as possible to bulk up for the next set of tournaments.

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ecureuil 12 Feb 2013 12:54:21 74,124 posts
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senso-ji wrote:
Not sure the top Tennis players in the world are scared of being caught as they're the ones asking for more testing:

Federer wants more Drug tests

Djokovic complained that the number of Drugs tests were going down.

Murray wants more money spent of Drug testing programs in Tennis

Whereas Nadal has said he doesn't want any more testing..

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nickthegun 12 Feb 2013 12:55:03 44,408 posts
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senso-ji wrote:
Not sure the top Tennis players in the world are scared of being caught as they're the ones testing
Murray wants more money spent of Drug testing programs in Tennis

Im sure if you spend another 30 seconds on google you could probably find the same sentiments from lance Armstrong.

---------------------------------------------------------
AGP.SRPT

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Psychotext 12 Feb 2013 12:58:42 49,178 posts
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They know how to get around them anyway. It's as much to stop people paying too much attention as anything else.

"I've passed more drugs tests than any other athlete in history"

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