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 With Russian Sharapova now facing a ban of up to four years pending
an investigation by the International Tennis Federation, the tennis
world has been served a timely reminder that playing safe when it
comes to drugs is always the best strategy.
"You can get pretty generic stuff now that makes you feel better if
you're sick and it's got to be a very special case for me to take
something specific," big-serving American Sam Querrey told Reuters
on Wednesday.
"You've just got to be responsible for everything you take. You have
to check everything in this day and age with USADA (United States
Anti-Doping Agency). I don't take caffeine. I just drink water and
Gatorade.
"I don't even take any shakes or mixed drinks or anything like that.
If I have flu, I take an aspirin or a Tylenol (paracetamol). I keep
it very basic."
Spanish left-hander Rafa Nadal, a 14-times grand slam champion,
adopts a similar strategy.
"I am not taking many things," Nadal told reporters at Indian Wells
ahead of the BNP Paribas Open. "I am just taking the things when I
am on the tennis court, in the orange bottles.
"I use two bottles - one has water and one has only mineral salts,
and that's it. Anti-inflammatories sometimes - Ibuprofen or
Voltaren.
"The other things I sometimes take are natural things, just medicine
if I have need to overcome something when I feel not good."
Sharapova stunned the tennis world with her announcement on Monday
that she had tested positive for meldonium, which some researchers
have linked to increased athletic performance and endurance.
MADE 'A HUGE MISTAKE'
Though she had been taking the Latvia-pioneered drug for a decade on
the advice of her family doctor, it has been outlawed by the World
Anti-Doping Agency since Jan. 1 but the Russian said she made "a
huge mistake" and continued using it.
That error by one of the most experienced players on the WTA circuit
shocked her peers and has refocused their attention to their own
medical needs.
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"If any of my friends or I go to a doctor, we bring our banned list
and that's how we go if we are getting medications or supplements,"
American doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 30, told Reuters.
"You go on the USADA website and look up pretty much any supplement,
any ingredient, any medication. And it's due diligence, it's a part
of being a pro athlete.
"The lists change when new medications come out, and you always have
to be aware of that. From my first day as a professional, they tell
you that you are responsible for everything that's in your body."
While Nadal does not check for himself the email notifications sent
to players before the start of each year about substances and
medications on the banned list, he has implicit trust in his medical
team.
"My doctor is the doctor of the Spanish Federation with a lot of
years experience," said the Spaniard. "He is the doctor for all the
Spanish tennis players so I have full confidence in him and I never
take nothing that he doesn't know.
"I am a completely clean guy. I have worked so much during my career
and if I get an injury, I get injured. I never take nothing to come
back quicker.
"I believe in sport, the values of sport. If I am doing something
that goes against that, I will be lying to myself, not lying to my
opponents, and that will be something really bad for me. I never had
the temptation of doing negative things."
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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