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Tennis star in doping shock
05/10/2005 10:13 - (SA)
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| Mariano Puerta holds his trophy after his men's final match of the tennis French Open at Roland Garros in June. (Thomas Coex, AFP, file photo)
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Paris - French Open finalist Mariano Puerta of Argentina tested positive for a stimulant at Roland Garros in June, sports daily l'Equipe reported on Wednesday.
The player could face a life ban as he had already been banned for nine months for testing positive for an anabolic steroid in 2003.
He tested positive for Etilefrine, used for hypotension.
Puerta, who lost the Roland Garros final to Spain's Rafael Nadal, has climbed into the top 10 after starting the year at 400.
L'Equipe said the player will not be identified by the men's ruling body, ATP, until he has appeared before a doping panel.
Puerta, 27, is the fifth Argentine player to have tested positive for drugs.
Guillermo Canas was suspended two years in 2005, Martin Rodriguez was docked ATP points and his winnings in 2003, Guillermo Coria was suspended seven months in 2001 and Juan Ignacio Chela suspended three months in 2000.
In Paris in June, Puerta said his comeback from the tennis wilderness was due to hard work and sacrifice.
The left-hander had tested positive for clenbutherol, a favourite drug of the former East German athletes in the 1980s, at a tournament in Vina del Mar in 2003.
The International Tennis Federation said on Tuesday they would take over doping tests from the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) next year.
The move is seen as aimed at tightening up the system of drug tests to better accord with the work of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which directs the international battle against drugs in all sports.
The ITF and the ATP had signed up to the Wada code which could lead to a life ban for Puerta if found guilty.
Britain's Greg Rusedski was cleared of using a doping offence last year, having failed a test for a steroid in July 2003, when he was able to successfully plead the banned substance was unwittingly supplied by ATP officials.
The Canadian-born former US Open finalist's defence centred around the case of Czech player Bohdan Ulihrach, who was cleared of a similar offence in 2003.
Ulihrach, and six other unnamed players, were exonerated when the ATP admitted their trainers may have been responsible for handing out contaminated supplements.
- AFP
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