Tennis: It was probably the shortest press conference Greg Rusedski has ever given and undoubtedly the least informative, but the fact that the British number two was speaking at all yesterday was newsworthy enough to pack an interview room on the eve of the week-long Adidas International tournament, writes Eleanor Preston in Sydney

After spending the previous day trying to ignore the increasingly irritated journalists and photographers trailing him around the Sydney Tennis Centre, Rusedski broke his silence to rebuff suggestions that his colleagues in the locker-room have turned against him following his positive drug test for nandrolone.

"I just wanted to say a few words," a rather drawn-looking and pale Rusedski began. "I have just been very encouraged by the reaction from people. I have had nothing but support from people. Even in the locker-room I have been particularly pleased by the players' reaction - they have been very positive and sympathetic towards me.

"At this stage I have nothing further to add. If you have any questions please feel free to direct them to my lawyer because I just want to concentrate on my tennis right now. That's what I do for a living, that's what I love to do and that's why I'm here in Australia." Some hope.

Each stroke of his practice sessions has been followed by television cameras and photographers. He has taken to having minders with him on court and anyone watching Rusedski and his security marching about might be forgiven for thinking they had spotted a rogue boy-band member and his entourage. Certainly his new fame has been noted by fellow players.

He arrived in Sydney wearing a black polo neck and Aviator sunglasses, as though dressed to audition for a Milk Tray advert. Another player - ranked considerably higher than Rusedski - who was on the same flight from Adelaide was unimpressed to see him ushered on to the aircraft at the last minute and taken through security before anyone else.

"It was a bit much," he said. "No one is even sure why he's playing here with everything else going on. I wouldn't be surprised if he was just here for the attention. Greg's done some funny things in his time."

Lleyton Hewitt took a more generous view and said that he, for one, would not be ostracising the Briton despite his positive test. "I'd say hello to him," said Hewitt. "I'm not really that close to Greg but I wouldn't ignore him or anything, that's for sure. You can't find a guy guilty until he's actually proven guilty."

It is not surprising that Rusedski has found a tentative ally in Hewitt, who is no friend to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The Australian said the high number of positive tests between August 2002 and May 2003, which went unpunished after the ATP blamed contaminated electrolyte supplements handed out by its own trainers, called into doubt the organisation's drug-testing procedures.

"I think you are always wary, the whole time, about what goes into your body. It's a tough situation because there have been problems in the whole testing of it," said Hewitt. "I guess it does worry everybody."

It says something about the way Rusedski's presence is eclipsing everything else that far fewer people turned out to hear Hewitt talking about his preparations for his home grand slam later this month than jostled to hear Rusedski.

The world number 119 was due to play his first match in this warm-up event this morning against Juan Ignacio Chela, the Argentinian banned for three months and thrown out of the world's top 500 in April 2001 after testing positive for the steroid methyltestosterone.

The notoriety of Rusedski's positive test may have done little for his reputation in Britain but it has given him a certain celebrity cachet here. Along with the tape recorders and cameras thrust at him after practice yesterday were a number of autograph books, which he duly signed.

When Rusedski made the decision to play here after going public with the news of his positive test, he must have known he would be bait for a media feeding frenzy. Even more bizarrely, for all that he is being smuggled through back doors by security men, he has opted to stay at the same hotel as many of the press - hardly the way to keep a low profile.

Amelie Mauresmo made a valiant attempt to grab some of Rusedski's limelight yesterday by criticising the Australian Open's decision to seed Venus Williams at number three despite the fact that the American has not played since Wimbledon and is currently ranked 11th in the world.

"I feel like I have been penalised because she is injured," said Mauresmo, who would have been seeded third but for Williams's elevation.

Guardian Service