LONDON, 10 January 2004 — Greg Rusedski, who has tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone, hit out at the ATP yesterday and claimed he was being singled out for punishment.

The British No. 2 said he was one of more than 40 players in the world’s top 120 who had tested positive for elevated levels of nandrolone. In a statement issued by his solicitors, Denton Wilde Sapte, the 30-year-old, who on Thursday revealed he had produced a positive test, vowed to clear his name and said he had been made a scapegoat for “what was one “one of the biggest scandals in world sport”.

He added that his case was similar to that of Czech player Bohdan Ulihrach whose two-year drugs ban was overturned in July when it was discovered that a mineral tablet given to him by a tour trainer contained traces of the banned anabolic steroid. Canadian-born Rusedski said: “From the top 120 players on the ATP there are now 43 samples demonstrating elevated levels of nandrolone. There has been no explanation for this. I am one of the 43. Drug-taking is not rife in tennis and something here is very wrong.”

Rusedski accepted he had failed a drugs test taken in Indianoplis on July 23, 2003. “The sample I provided in Indianapolis on July 23, 2003 was found to contain the metabolites of nandrolone in it. However, this does not tell the whole story,” he insisted. “Between August 2002 and May 2003 something strange happened. At least 43 samples taken from top players on the ATP main tour were found to contain elevated levels of nandrolone. “What was interesting about these samples was not just the number, but the fact that they all displayed the same unique analytical fingerprint. This type of analytical fingerprint has never been found in any other sport and therefore is unique to tennis. This indicates that the positives all spring from a common source.”

But the big serving left-hander added that the inquiry set up following the Ulihrach decision had failed to reveal the cause of the problem and said it was unfair that he alone now faced drugs charges.

Rusedski referred to an ATP news release on July 9, 2003 which said tour trainers had been instructed following Ulihrach’s successful appeal, not to distribute products to players. But he added that this was “not the end of the matter”.

Rusedski, 30, battled against several injuries in 2003 but said he kept a detailed record of all his medication. “When I was informed that my sample had tested positive I was stunned. Despite the fact that I was very ill, I was competing for Great Britain in the Davis Cup,” the 1997 US Open finalist said. “I knew I had not taken anything that could test positive. Indeed, I have diligently kept a record of every vitamin and supplement that I have ever consumed throughout my career.”

Rusedski added that if he were punished so should all the other 43 players he said had produced elevated levels of nandrolone. “However, the ATP, for reasons I simply do not understand, have not taken this view. Instead of treating me in the same category as all of the other players who have demonstrated elevated levels of nandrolone and the common analytical fingerprint, I appear to have been singled out for this treatment. This is wrong, unfair and discriminatory.

“I am looking to the tribunal on Feb. 9 (in Montreal) to give me the justice I seek and fully trust that they will. I wish to emphasize that I will fight this case to the bitter end.”

Rusedski’s former coach Tony Pickard said that he was stunned by the news of the player’s drug test failure. “He will be feeling pretty sick at the moment,” Pickard told Sky News. “I was shattered when I heard. If he is guilty then he will have dug a huge hole for himself from which he will find it hard to get out. Even if he gets just a one year ban, he would find it very difficult to come back. He wouldn’t have a protected ranking and with all his achievements he would not want to go back to playing Challengers and satellite events.”

Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee said that as Rusedski had yet to face a disciplinary hearing, he was entitled to play in the first Grand Slam event of the year which gets under way in Melbourne on Jan. 19.