Let me start by stating that Yanina Wickmayer and Xaiver Mallise have never tested positive in any of their respective drug tests, so this has nothing to do with them being accused of using any drugs of any sort.
Yanina Wickmayer, a 2009 US Open semi-finalist was suspended for one year by the Flemish Regional Tribunal (VDT) for failing to report her whereabouts for a third time. A day after the 18th ranked player defeated Kimiko Date Krumm in the Tournament of Champions in Bali.
The suspension comes as a surprise because a prosecutor had only recommended that she be given a warning for missing three times in the past eighteen months, but the Flemish Regional Tribunal called the punishment “reasonable”. Wickmayer has stated she’s done nothing wrong on her official website and plans to file an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport; she was forced to withdraw from the Bali tournament where she was a favorite to reach the semifinals this upcoming weekend.
They’re treating tennis players like criminals and might as well put tracking devices on them if they want to pull a tasteless act like suspending Wickmayer in the middle of a tournament.
Wickmayer has never tested positive in any of her recent tests, so this isn’t drug related obviously, it’s all stemming back to Agassi and his recent admittance to the use of Meth in his book.
I remember that Wickmayer said last month she has had trouble with her password in the computerized system overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency. She also said registered mail at her home could not be signed off on because she was traveling to WTA tournaments with her father, who’re the only two residents of the Wickmayer residence and her father does travel with her when she’s going to tournaments. So who’s home to sign off on the mail? Nobody, seriously, they’ve got to re evaluate these doping rules before the players say enough is enough and they don’t have anyone to play in these tournaments…then what?
Also, this infraction isn't even through the ITF or the WTA - it is through a Belgian Anti-Doping group, whose rules are apparently much more stringent than those of either tennis association. Through the WTA, Wickmayer didn't have to start reporting her whereabouts until after the U.S. Open, because she wasn't ranked highly enough to fall under those rules. So the first two missed whereabouts reports shouldn’t even count, so if you want to get technical, she’s missed it only once. Which should incur no infraction what so ever, and should be allowed to play in the Tournament of Champions, but it’s going to be too late by the time that they come to a conclusion on her decision. Another player hurt by the WADA’s zealot doping policies.
*updated 11/7/09
ITF confirms 1 year suspensions of both players..
way to go ITF, way to go with your overkill policy.
*updated 11/12/09
Wow...after reading more detailed rules about the "whereabouts" clause you have to notify authorities a whopping three months in advance, that's just absurd.
From Wickmayer's Press Confrence in Brussels
Wickmayer said anti-doping officials corresponded with registered mail to her home in Belgium where she lives with her father, who is also her coach.
The two travel together several months of the year, meaning registered mail remains unopened. Wickmayer expressed surprise that no one phoned or e-mailed her when the mail went unanswered.
Under WADA’s “whereabouts” rule, elite athletes must make themselves available for out-of-competition testing for one hour a day, 365 days a year. They must give three months’ notice of where and when they will be available so they can be tested.
The data is kept on a Web site where it can be changed. If athletes miss three out-of-competition tests or fail three times to register where they will be for anti-doping tests, they risk sanctions.
As she circled the globe, Wickmayer—whose career earnings to date total less than $1 million—said she received no guidance from tennis or anti-doping authorities on how to file her whereabouts data.
“They should inform us better on how this system works,” she said.
Update 11/14/09
Man as the days go by..the more and more I dig up:
Wickmayer said she spent November and December of 2008 training in Switzerland, traveled to Australia in January and consequently was not at home in Belgium when certified letters containing the whereabouts information were sent to her house.
After hearing other players discuss new doping rules, Wickmayer said she googled the email address for the Flemish Anti-doping agency and sent them an email on February 18, 2009 requesting information.
Authorities replied the next day, however Wickmayer said the reply did not inform her she already missed one update. Wickmayer suggested authorities, who would have received the returned certified letters she never signed for, failed to communicate her status.
"On February 19, 2009, I received an email back, which included a login and did not include any information about the one failed update I had already missed, without
knowing that this system even exists, even though all the letters that I had to sign for upon receipt and were sent back to the Flemish Anti-Doping Agency, meaning that they did know that I never received them," Wickmayer said.
During as seven-week stint playing and training in the United States, Wickmayer said she tried to login to the system but the login she was given by authorities did not work. She said she sent another email to authorities in April informing them the login did not give her access to the system.
"After the weekend, their reply to me was simply that there was a problem with my login and that they have reset this so I can log in with a new login into the system," Wickmayer said. "There was no indication in this email that I now had already had two failures to update behind my name, even though I had not even logged into the system once. Following their reply to me and using the new login information, I mistakenly completed the online whereabouts details wrong, as I did not know that you could not select the option ‘competition’ and instead had to select the option “permanent residence”, which I had no idea about."
Wickmayer claims it wasn’t until June when she phoned the VDT that she was given information on how to complete the online whereabouts requirements completely, but by that point she had already missed her third update though she claims authorities never informed her.
"This conversation took place after my 3rd missed update had already happened, even though I had not received any word about this,” Wickmayer said. "From that day on, my WADA (information) has always been updated correctly and I have been tested out of competition at home."