The International Tennis Federation (ITF) will appeal against the lenient treatment of Czech Petr Korda following a positive drugs test, saying he was liable to a one-year ban under its anti-doping rules.
The sport's governing body said yesterday that it would appeal against the decision to limit the penalty on Korda to the loss of prize money and ranking points after he was found to have taken a banned steroid, nandrolone, during Wimbledon last year.
The decision of the independent Appeals Committee stopped short of imposing the one-year ban on the Australian Open champion which is called for under ITF rules if a player tests positive for a Class 1 substance such as nandrolone.
The ITF said it would base its challenge to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), on the grounds that the regulation governing the extent of the penalty had been misapplied.
After learning of the positive drug test, Korda told the Appeals Committee he had no idea how the banned substance had found its way into his system or when it could have been administered.
The committee ruled that his plea constituted sufficient mitigating circumstances for them to forego the ban.
Earlier yesterday, ITF president Tobin said during the Hopman Cup mixed team event in Perth that the game's governing body was not satisfied with the decision of the appeals panel, itself appointed by the ITF. He said the ITF had less than two weeks to lodge its appeal.
His comments came after criticism of the panel's decision by players, notably Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and US women's world number one Lindsay Davenport. Bjorkman said on Wednesday that Korda should be suspended and the ITF was scared. He wants the game's stars to join forces in a bid to get Korda suspended. Bjorkman claimed the decision of the ITF was "totally the worst that could happen for tennis".
"We've heard so many things that guys are positive and they just cover it - they are just so scared of putting it out," Bjorkman said at a news conference in Perth yesterday. "If you cheat, you should be suspended for two, three, four, five years. This is steroids and you take them or not. There is no-one that is just going to put them into you."
"I think this is sick," he added. "It is a sick decision to just make him pay back the money and lose the points. He played his best tennis all the way up to Wimbledon and then he was gone."
Speaking from Australia's Gold Coast near Brisbane, Davenport said yesterday: "I think it's a little bit awkward in the fact that he got off. First of all you should be well in control of what goes in your body. I don't think anyone just takes pills without knowing what it is. Second of all it was wrong, it was illegal."
Tobin said the ITF conducted more than 1,000 drug tests a year. "I am delighted the players feel so positive about doping and cheating," he said. He also dismissed any suggestion that the ITF might have covered up other positive tests.
