Cleared Gasquet ready to turn the page
After his nightmare 2009 season, French tennis player Richard Gasquet
insists he now wants to turn the page and get back to winning titles.
The 23-year-old former world top ten player saw his world ranking
plummet to 52 after a positive test for cocaine following a kiss in a
Miami nightclub resulted in him serving a ban.
"In my heart I was expecting this outcome because I'm innocent. So
justice has been done," the former French number one said after being
cleared of doping Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Gasquet tested positive during the Miami Masters in March and was
provisionally suspended in May before serving a two-and-a-half month
retroactive ban.
But the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and WADA (World
Anti-Doping Agency) wanted him to be hit with a ban of one or two years.
It was their appeal to CAS which was rejected as sport's top court
acknowledged that the Frenchman was likely to have been inadvertently
contaminated with a minute trace of the drug as a result of the kiss.
"I'm very, very happy this is behind me," said a relieved Gasquet.
"It's been very tough. I was positive in my head from the beginning
because I knew that things should be OK. I've always told the truth.
"What was horrible was the way people look at you and to see yourself
in the media."
"I've been waiting for this appeal for four months. Even at the US
Open this was on my mind and now I can return to training with a clear
head.
"I can turn the page towards 2010," said Gasquet who will now prepare
for the first tournaments of the season in Australia.
The ruling means that Gasquet can now focus on adding to his five ATP
titles the last of which he won in Mumbai in 2007.
"The aim is to return as quickly as possible to the top 20 then 15,
little by little," he explained.
"And above all I want to play Roland Garros and have a great
tournament.
PARIS, Dec 18, 2009 AFP |