Tennis Ace Back After Coke Ban
Tennis Federation lets Gasquet back on the court
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Richard Gasquet has a way with the ladies and apparently a way with anti-doping tribunals.
Pro tennis player Richard Gasquet didn't ace a Miami drug test in March which found cocaine in his system, but the Frenchman will be back on the court soon after a tennis tribunal ended his ban today.
Gasquet had been banned by the International Tennis Federation for two months and 15 days after he tested positive for coke while at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne.
Apparently an anti-doping tribunal bought Gasquet's story that he accidentally injested the drug while at a night club.
He was facing as much as a two-year ban, but the tribunal said it would be "unjust and disproportionate" to saddle Gasquet with more time.
Gasquet missed both the French Open and Wimbledon while suspended.
The 32nd-ranked player said he'd been at club Set the night before the test, where he'd had one cocktail which he claims must have been contaminated or spiked.
"One of the people there that night has told me there that cocaine was going round our table," Gasquet said at the time. "Since it's a minute quantity that was found in my urine - a mere trace which, I have since found out represents 10 times less than a line of cocaine, everything is possible."
Gasquet, 23, insisted he's never tried cocaine and that his motivation for winning has never been higher.
"I am innocent, and I can't wait to start playing again. My career is far from finished," he said.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 6 Miami
Posted Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 - 6:55 PM EST
