WADA acclaim Puerta eight-year ban

World Anti-Doping Agency president Dick Pound acclaimed an eight-year doping ban on French Open finalist Mariano Puerta as a big step forward for tennis.

"We were always worried about the secrecy and apparent laxity of the testing programmes when the responsibility was in the hands of the players' association (ATP)," Pound told Sky Sports News.

Argentine Puerta received the record ban from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after testing positive for the stimulant etilefrine following his defeat in the French Open final to Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal last June. He had already served a nine-month ban after testing positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol in 2003.

"Somebody who has tested positive twice in less than two years is someone who clearly doesn't think the rules apply to them," Pound said.

"It is a big, big step forward. We're very pleased and we will keep working with the ITF to help them make their sport even cleaner."

The ATP decided in October to hand over all responsibility for drug testing to the ITF.

Last year British number two Greg Rusedski was cleared of taking drugs despite a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after an ATP tribunal ruled he had taken the drug inadvertently in pills handed out by trainers.

Czech Bohdan Ulihrach was also exonerated by a tribunal after he had originally been banned for two years.

Ulihrach was one of seven tennis players to test positive for a metabolite of nandrolone while a further 36 had elevated levels in samples conducted between August 2002 and May 2003.

The ATP said its trainers may have unknowingly handed out banned substances but added it had stopped two months before Rusedski failed his test.

A WADA report concluded the ATP had not tried to cover up any positive results but added: "ATP is in an awkward position, on the one hand being an association of players composed of players who effectively own the association, and on the other hand trying to enforce sanctions against those same players".

Although Puerta could have been banned for life, Wednesday's suspension effectively ends his career. He has three weeks to decide if he wants to appeal to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Last year US sprinter Michelle Collins, the 2003 world indoor 200 metres champion, was also banned for eight years after the American Arbitration Association concluded she had used a cocktail of drugs including the designer steroid THG.

The ban, which followed a federal investigation into the BALCO laboratory in California, was halved after Collins agreed to drop an appeal to CAS.