Coria settles 'vitamin' lawsuit

2007-06-20 22:01

New Brunswick, New Jersey - Guillermo Coria on Wednesday settled his lawsuit against an American vitamin maker he blamed for a positive doping test and costing him millions in earnings.

Terms between Coria and Universal Nutrition, which had denied the Argentine tennis player's claims that their nutritional supplements were tainted by a steroid and thus caused his positive test, were not disclosed.

The deal came as the 25-year-old Coria was to testify on the second day of the trial.

Coria had charged that a contaminated multivitamin not only kept him from competing for seven months in 2001 and 2002, but besmirched his reputation and cost him at least $10m in prize money, bonuses, appearance fees and endorsements.

Richard Grossman, a lawyer for New Brunswick-based Universal in central New Jersey, on Tuesday said the company is not to blame for any contamination. He told the jury Universal took care to prevent steroids from being mixed into batches of vitamins.

Coria, once ranked No 3 by the ATP, did not speak to reporters as he left the courtroom, and lawyers for him and the company declined to give any details on the deal.

- AP