British tennis ace Greg Rusedski this evening claimed that 47 of the sport's top male players had tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug nandrolone.
The British number two, who on Thursday voluntarily revealed he had tested positive for the banned steroid last year, claimed he had been "singled out" after prosecutions against the other 46 stars were dropped by the game's governing body, the ATP.
Rusedski, in a detailed statement, said the dramatic rise in positive nandrolone tests since 2002 represented "one of the biggest scandals to surface in world sport".
The Canadian-born player said the samples from the players, which demonstrated elevated levels of nandrolone, shared the same "unique analytical fingerprinting".
This, he argues, showed that the drug was coming from the same single source - believed to be products distributed by ATP trainers.
He added: "These 47 samples emanate solely from the 120 or so top players on the main ATP tour. Therefore, potentially, nearly half of the Tour could have demonstrated elevated levels of nandrolone. The only explanation the ATP has been able to find for this is they themselves caused it."
But two weeks after the ATP said it would not be pursuing prosecutions against the 46 players to have tested positive for the drug, Rusedski himself failed a sample provided after a tournament in Indianapolis on 23 July 2003.
Although he claims his sample showed the same unique fingerprinting as the 46 cleared players, the ATP has decided to go-ahead and prosecute the 30-year-old.
He said: "Instead of treating me in the same category as all the other players who have demonstrated elevated levels of nandrolone and common analytical fingerprinting, I appear to have been singled out for this special treatment. This is wrong, unfair and discriminatory."
Rusedski said he would fight his case to the "bitter end" and called on the ATP to name the other players to have failed nandrolone tests.
The defiant star, who on Thursday crashed out of the second round of the AAPT Championships in Adelaide in his comeback match, vowed to play in this weekend's adidas International in Sydney and the forthcoming Australian Open in Melbourne.
Rusedski, who faces an ATP hearing in his home town of Montreal on February 9, said he had no reason not to continue playing.
Despite Rusedski's protestations of innocence, World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound stood by his no-nonsense approach to nandrolone.
"There is no excuse. If you don't know what is in a supplement, then don't take it.
"You would think that anybody who has been paying the slightest attention would see that these things are always coming up."
Rusedski's former coach Pat Cash believes Rusedski could find himself "out of tennis for a year" if found guilty of taking the banned substance.
Former Wimbledon champion Cash warned that life would not be easy for the 30-year-old, who has struggled with injuries in the last 18 months, regardless of the outcome of the case.
"I am surprised but he is very, very dedicated and when you have a run of injuries it's very, very tempting to take something to help you along," Cash told BBC Radio Five Live.
Cash said he doubts that Rusedski did knowingly take the substance, claiming: "For me it seems a bit ridiculous he would do that, he has shot himself in the foot.
"He is a professional athlete, he should know better. We will have to wait and see what the circumstances are. Perhaps he has taken it accidentally.
"But unless there are extreme circumstances I think he will find himself out of tennis for a year."
Former Wimbledon junior quarter-finalist Chris Bailey, meanwhile questioned Rusedski's decision to continue playing while a drug ban hanged over him.
He said: "How can he concentrate on the job in hand? Will he be able to concentrate on tennis? I very much doubt that," said Bailey, who contemplated how Rusedski had failed a drugs test.
"There has been a link with a dietary supplements and dehydration which can produce a low level of nandrolone so he could claim he was not ingesting nandrolone and it was a chemical reaction in his body.
"He is going to have quite a job proving he was not taking the drugs." American tennis star James Blake and Spanish veteran Alex Corretja, Rusedski's colleagues on the ATP tour, announced their surprise at the news of the Briton's drug failure.
"I hope it is just a mistake and he's back on tour and he's OK - he adds something to the game he has that huge lefty serve and I hope he did not do anything on purpose," said Blake.
Corretja, playing in New Zealand, said he cannot see why Rusedski would turn to performance enhancing substances.
"I know Greg and I think it sounds really strange, because the way he plays I don't think he needs any supplements because he really plays an aggressive game," he said.
"I've got to give him the benefit of the doubt because I know him and I would be pretty surprised if the guy has taken something.
"It came as something of a bolt from the blue to the tour staff too."
PA