By Richard Pagliaro
Photo Credit: Henk Abbink

(March 27, 2010) MIAMI  — Andy Roddick knows Wayne Odesnik and is annoyed by the news that Odesnik pleaded guilty to importing HGH into Australia in January.

Pulling no punches in his post-match press conference here last night, Roddick said if the charges are true then Odesnik cheated and should be banned from tennis.

"If he pled guilty, which it looks like he did, there's nothing worse than that.  I'm normally the one to give people the benefit of the doubt," Roddick said after his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Igor Andreev at the Sony Ericsson Open on Friday night. "If that's the case, what we read today, that's just plain cheating and they should throw him out of tennis.  There's just no room for it. I was shocked.  I was surprised.  You know, we don't need stories like that.  You know, I know that's the minority.  If that's the case, I have zero sympathy."

The 24-year-old American had eight vials containing 6 mg of HGH in his luggage when he arrived in Australia to play Brisbane and the Australian Open, according to a published report by the AAP.

Odesnik pleaded guilty to importing HGH in the Brisbane Magistrates Court and was fined $8,000 and ordered to pay $1,142.80 in costs.

Though there is no evidence as of yet that Odesnik tested positive for HGH, Roddick suggested simply possessing the substance could be cause for suspension.

"If you have a possession, you know you're not supposed to have it.  You're not supposed to be anywhere near it," Roddick said. "You're not supposed to know about it.  You're not supposed to smuggle it into a country. I mean, if you caught your sons or daughters and they possessed some type of drug, they're guilty of probably using, as well, correct? You know, I don't see the difference.  If you have it and it's not enough to  you either have it to sell it or you have it to take it.  So either way, it's not the play.  It's no good."



The sixth-seeded Roddick said he knows Odesnik though they have not spent much time together, but is incensed by the "stigma" Odesnik's case casts on American players.

"I know Wayne a little bit.  I mean, I wouldn't say we're friends.  He used to train in Austin sometimes.  You know, I don't think we ever really did much together," Roddick said. "But it's just normally when this has happened in tennis it's been someone that is like I don't really know at all.  To have it be one of our guys and for us to lose a guy in the top 100, it makes me a little angry, you know. I don't want that stigma attached to our country and to our players, so it really pisses me off."

Roddick asserted tennis has one of the strongest anti-doping policies in sport and said he believes the sport has taken significant steps to eliminate doping.

"We're up there with the Olympics.  We can't take Sudafed because something will come up.  We have to be accountable for where we are," Roddick said.  "I have to send in my forms next week to tell people where I'm gonna be for the next month every single day. If my wife and I want to drive for a day trip somewhere, I have to call in and say, We're going here, here, and here and provide an address. So I hope with the articles that they will at least acknowledge that.  The ATP and the powers that be in tennis have done every single thing possible, you know, with the exception of assigning a person to follow each person around 24 hours a day and sleep with the person, to mitigate these problems, you know."