Kuznetsova Cleared, Belgian Sports Minister Under Fire

The tennis community has drawn together in support of Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who was accused of failing a drug test during an exhibition in Belgium.

Belgian regional sports minister Claude Eerdekens said Kuznetsova's test showed ephedrine in her system, a stimulant often found in common over-the-counter cold remedies. Ephedrine is not an illegal substance if detected during the off-season, when Kuznetsova was playing the exhibition.

Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpishchev accused Eerdekens on Tuesday of slighting the whole of Russia with the doping accusation, which was not backed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) or the WTA Tour.

"What he has done is beyond any ethical norms accepted in the civilised sporting community," Tarpishchev told Reuters. "He not only wrongly accused one of our top tennis players. By doing it he also slandered the whole of Russia."

Kuznetsova said the result was from the cold medicine and nothing else.

"I pride myself on being a clean athlete of the highest integrity and am offended by these disgraceful accusations," Kuznetsova said in a statement. "What is true is that at the time of the exhibition match in question, I did have a cold and was taking a cold medicine."

WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott in a press conference said the doping allegation should have never surfaced, and wondered what an exhibition event was doing testing players in the first place.

"The reports are saying ephedrine. I want to make clear that under the tennis anti-doping program, ephedrine is not a banned substance when it's out of competition," Scott said. "What Svetlana was playing in was a two-day charity exhibition during our off-season. This was not a competition. The only reason I'm here is because a tremendous injustice has been done to our players and to our sport."