The suspensions of two Belgian tennis players and a boxer for breaking doping regulations leads to anger and tears at a news conference in Antwerp.


ANTWERP, BELGIUM (NOVEMBER 6, 2009) VTM - Belgian tennis player Xavier Malisse was in tears at a news conference in Antwerp to answer questions on his suspension by the Flemish Doping Tribunal for missing drug tests.
A former Wimbledon semi-finalist now ranked 95th, Malisse was suspended for a year for missing a doping test and twice failing to say where he could be reached.

Felow Belgian tennis player Yanina Wickmayer, a semi-finalist at this year's U.S. Open, is considering an appeal against her one-year ban for also failing to comply with doping regulations.

The world number 18 was suspended by the Flemish Doping Tribunal (VDT) after falling foul of the whereabouts rule, which states that players must notify their national doping agency of where they can be reached on a daily basis.

Wickmayer quit Bali's Tournament of Champions and left the resort island after receiving the ban.

Drying off his tears Malisse said he saw the suspension as a fatal blow to his career.

"It is very hard to come back...in a year's time I will be 30 and a half. I will then have to play challengers and futures again. That is something I can't really see myself doing," Malisse said.

Wickmayer's spokesman, Rudi Kuyl, is furious and wants to appeal.

"I can only say that both ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) and WTA (Women's Tennis Association) are ridiculing us and they are stripping us naked like Nazi Flanders. They are shedding a very unfavourable light on us in the world news. We can't win at tennis but we are world champions when it comes to suspending athletes," he said.

An appeal is only possible at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, but that would be a slow and costly process, Wickmayer's doctor Chris Goossens said.

An appeal would also not suspend the ruling, meaning Wickmayer would be out of competition for several months at least, Goossens said.

Kuyl said one of the options Wickmayer's lawyer was considering was to ask the CAS to suspend the ruling.

Malisse defended himself saying it was hard for him to log onto the internet and respond to the doping board's requests because he was always on tour.

The court said he could have sent a text message to tell them of his whereabouts but Malisse said he had not been aware of that option.

"It is difficult. I was in Naples we were at the challenges and the level is much lower. So when I arrived there was no internet and sometimes it is really hard to fill out the forms and the thing about the text messages we only heard about it during the court session and we were not aware of it" he said.

Team doctor Chris Goosens said he was disgusted by the tribunal's decision as a man who had fought against doping in sports for many years.

"There is no human face to the fight against doping and I want to add that I am now saying goodbye to 25 years of fighting against doping," Goosens.

Belgian featherweight boxer Sugar Jackson Osei Bonsu was also in tears at the news conference. He is accused of missing three doping controls and risks a two year suspension from the ring.