Pound: Sharapova guilty of ‘willful negligence’ in drug test

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LONDON (AP) Maria Sharapova was guilty of “willful negligence” for using meldonium, and international tennis officials were aware that many players were taking the drug before it was banned this year, former World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound said Wednesday.

Pound told The Associated Press that Sharapova could face a ban of up to four years unless she can prove mitigating circumstances to explain her positive test for meldonium at the Australian Open in January.

Meldonium, a Latvian-manufactured drug designed to treat heart conditions, was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list on Jan. 1 after authorities noticed widespread use of the substance among athletes.

In announcing her positive test at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday, Sharapova said she had been using the drug for 10 years for various medical issues. The five-time Grand Slam champion and world’s highest-earning female athlete said she hadn’t realized meldonium had been prohibited this year, taking full responsibility for her mistake.

“An athlete at that level has to know that there will be tests, has to know that whatever she or he is taking is not on the list, and it was willful negligence to miss that,” Pound said. “She was warned in advance I gather. The WADA publication is out there. She didn’t pay any attention to it. The tennis association issued several warnings, none of which she apparently read.”

“I am sorry, if you are running a $30 million a year sole enterprise you better make sure the basis for that commercial success, if nothing else, remains unassailable,” Pound added in the interview with the AP on the sidelines of the Tackling Doping in Sport conference at Twickenham Stadium.

Current WADA president Craig Reedie questioned why Sharapova was prescribed meldonium.

“If the reports are true and this was happening when she was a teenager, then you begin to wonder why a drug that is basically to help heart problems was administered,” he said.

Pound disclosed that international tennis officials had flagged up the use of meldonium to the WADA committee that monitors the use of various drugs and recommends whether to put them on the banned list.

“Clearly, within the tennis circle at least, they were aware that a lot of the players were using it (meldonium) and said that there must be something to this, so they referred it to the WADA list committee,” Pound said.

So far, Sharapova is the only tennis player with a known positive test for meldonium.

Meldonium, which is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was banned by WADA because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance. Several other athletes in various international sports have already been caught using it since it was banned Jan. 1.

Sharapova is being provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Federation, which will hold hearings on the case and decide on any long-term ban.

“She faces up to four years sanction for this,” Pound said. “There will have to be a review of whatever mitigating factors there may be, and not many leap to mind.”

Pound said he did not understand why Sharapova would have been taking the drug for so long.

The player said Monday that she had taken meldonium for a decade following various health problems including regular sicknesses, early signs of diabetes and “irregular” results from echocardiography exams.

“Looking at it from 10,000 feet and from outside, you say, `I am sorry but that doesn’t hold together,”‘ Pound said. “You’re in the United States, this is a product that is not available in the United States, and so there has got to be more to this than meets the eye. She will have the burden of saying, `Here’s why I don’t think I should face the full four years.”‘

Grindeks, the Latvian company that manufactures meldonium, said the normal course of treatment with meldonium is four to six weeks.

“One of the issues that will have to be dealt with is that the use of this product for therapeutic purposes is not a long term,” Pound said. “You use it for a single intervention for weeks or months maybe but not for 10 years in a row.”

Sharapova’s lawyer, John J. Haggerty, said Tuesday that he wanted “to disabuse the concept that Maria took mildronate every day for 10 years because that’s simply not the case.”

At French Open, Francisco Cerundolo is mad at chair umpire over Holger Rune’s double-bounce

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
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PARIS – Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina was devastated about losing his French Open fourth-round match to Holger Rune of Denmark in a fifth-set tiebreaker Monday. He also was mad at chair umpire Kader Nouni for missing a double-bounce of the ball on a point that was awarded to Rune early in his 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.

They were tied at a set apiece and on serve at 2-1 for the No. 6-seeded Rune early in the third at Court Suzanne Lenglen when the point of contention happened. Cerundolo, who was serving at deuce, hit a forehand that skidded low at the baseline and quickly bounced a second time – which normally would have meant that the point was his.

But Rune went ahead and got his racket on the ball, sending it back over the net. At about the same time, No. 23 seed Cerundolo was saying “sorry” to apologize for the odd way his forehand made the ball skim across the clay. Nouni was not immediately aware of the double-bounce, thought the ball was still in play and called Cerundolo for hindrance for talking during a point. That meant Rune got the point, and when he won the next one, too, he had a service break.

“It was unbelievable, because it was a clear double-bounce. I was mad at the umpire because he has to see it,” Cerundolo said. “It’s his fault.”

In tennis, electronic line-calling is used at many tournaments to make line calls, but replays are not used to check things like double-bounces or whether a point should be lost because a player touches the net, which is not allowed.

And while Cerundolo put the onus on the official, he also thought Rune could have ceded the point because of the double-bounce.

“For sure, I wish he would have done that, because it was a big moment,” Cerundolo said.

Rune, who moved into a matchup against No. 4 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, said he saw a replay after the following point, and “saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened, and he called the score. So I felt sorry.”

But, Rune added: “This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Gael Monfils withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
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PARIS — A thrilling five-set victory took a toll on Gael Monfils, whose withdrawal from the French Open handed No. 6 Holger Rune a walkover to the third round.

The 36-year-old Frenchman said he has a strained left wrist and can’t continue.

He battled Sebastian Baez for nearly four hours on Court Philippe Chatrier before beating the Argentine 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in a first-round match that ended at 12:18 a.m. local time.

The victory was Monfils’ first at tour level this year, as the veteran was coming back from heel surgery.

“Actually, physically, I’m quite fine. But I had the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve,” he said. “The doctor say was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely say I should stop.”

Monfils reached the semifinals at the French Open in 2008 and made it to the quarterfinals on three other occasions.