Tennis Notes: Stich Playing Own ATP Event; Gasquet Coke Kiss
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
ATP TRADES GAMBLING INFO FOR SPONSORSHIP? — From Courthouse News in Miami: “Four tennis pros say the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour discriminated in suspending them for Internet gambling because the tour needed scapegoats after the media focused on the issue. And they say an online sports booker provided the ATP with information about them in exchange for sponsorship of ATP events. Giorgio Galimberti, Alessio Di Mauro, Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali, all of Italy, admit they gambled, but say it was for small stakes. They say the ATP Tour is using them to impress tennis fans with the ATP’s so-called anti-corruption program. The pros say co-defendant Interwetten, a self-proclaimed “leading provider of online sport betting” provided the ATP information on its members’ betting history in exchange for sponsorship of ATP events. Interwetten recently sponsored the Interwetten Austrian Open Kitzbuhel.”
ADHEREL
STICH IS BACK — Fore world No. 2 Michael Stich, tournament director for the ATP event in Hamburg, will play his own event next week in doubles, with the 40-year-old teaming with 21-year-old countryman Mischa Zverev. “For the past five years I have been training in Hamburg with Mischa and at some point we had the idea to play doubles in a tournament together,” Stich said in a statement.
GASQUET COKE BUST DUE TO CLUB KISSING? — From Tennis Week: “Richard Gasquet claims a dosed drink or a contaminated kiss in a Miami nightclub caused his positive test for cocaine. An independent Anti-Doping Tribunal embraced the explanation in clearing the way for Gasquet’s return to the ATP World Tour today. Gasquet, who tested positive for cocaine in March, has been cleared to return to the pro circuit, following a two-month, 15-day suspension…The fact that the amount of cocaine detected in Gasquet’s system was so minute may well have played a part in the decision: if Gasquet had knowingly used cocaine it seems likely there would have been a greater presence of the drug in his system. Following a two-day hearing, the Anti-Doping Tribunal found that a urine sample provided by Gasquet on March 28 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami had tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine. A “very small amount of cocaine in unmetabolized form” was found in Gasquet’s urine sample. Cocaine is a banned “in-competition substance” under WADA’s 2009 List of Prohibited Substances, however it is not banned as an out-of-competition substance, which means if Gasquet had tested positive out of competition, he would not face suspension.”…
Andy Roddick pulled from the Indianapolis Tennis Championships citing a right hip flexor injury, the same injury that kept him out of the U.S. Davis Cup team’s quarterfinal at Croatia…
Pete Sampras and Marat Safin will play an exo match during the ATP LA event…
Canadian and WTA Tour V.P. Stacey Allaster was promoted to replace Larry Scot as chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour…
Rafael Nadal is scheduled to test his sore knees beginning Aug. 10 at the ATP Montreal stop…
How far has Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek falled? This month she lost in the first round of the ITF $50,000 Women’s Circuit event in Grapevine, Tex…
Jelena Dokic was diagnosed with mono…
Todd Woodbridge was name the new Australian Davis Cup coach…
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