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Off-Court at the US
Open |
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COVERS Flushing
Meadows’ organisers must be considering whether to roof or not as the US Open may soon become the only one of the four
Grand Slams without one, except they don’t seem to be in any hurry to join
the others and any rain delays this year will surely float the issue up to
the top of the tennis media’s radar. Andy Murray was asked about it over the weekend
and prompted laughter from attending press: “Maybe not a roof but maybe
covers,” he said. “I've
seen a few times since I've been here when it's rained, they sort of have,
like, 100 people out on the court with towels sort of cleaning them, drying
them. They could do with investing in some covers. “There's
only normally a couple of days during the tournament where there is some bad
weather but some covers would definitely help.” |
HEARTLESS Even
before the real duels began, questions were being raised about the over-bearing
and highly intrusive dope controls now being imposed on tennis players. Barbara
Wancke who was involved with the very first ITF Medical Commission charged
with coming up with a robust scheme to prove our sport was clean, wasfrankly
horrified to read that players like Andy Murray are being woken up in the
early hours to submit a urine test and Laura Robson, just 15 years old, was
made to hang around in line for over an hour after losing a heart-breaking
third round qualifying match for doping control. |
Because of the Olympics, tennis
has to conform to the same rules as other sports and everyone knows what a
complicated and shifting target the threat performance-enhancing substances
present to top level competition. Sadly
it seems our sport is not as clean as we once believed but this is a hornet’s
nest best left to the experts. But
players are entitled to some respect and some privacy even though drug
testing is mandatory during competition. Surely these things could be handled
with more heart? Pictures
Fotosports International 1st
September 2009 |
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