ITF anti-doping manager Stuart Miller tells the Associated Press that the organization will revisit the regulations that allowed Wayne Odesnik to continue competing even after he pleaded guilty to importing human growth hormone (HGH) into Australia.
"Our rules say if, and only if, we detect a prohibited substance in a sample provided by a player will we impose a provisional suspension," Miller said. "Clearly, there's a need to review that rule and there is no doubt that that will happen. I'm not going hide or run away from that, because clearly it is something that we need to look at."
Miller added that the ITF was told that it could hurt Odesnik's ability to defend himself in court if it launched its own disciplinary proceedings against him before an Australian judge had ruled on the case, so it waited until the judgment came down on March 25.
"We were missing pieces of the puzzle," Miller said. "As soon as the decision was handed down in the Australian courts, we sent out our notice that we were beginning an investigation. I can tell you that we are moving absolutely as fast as we possibly can within the constraints that we have."
Miller added said that the ITF, which doesn't test for HGH, may do so in the future if a reliable test is found.
"We've got to look at possible tests for human growth hormone in tennis, there's no doubt we have got to consider it," Miller said.
"At the moment [the test] has some shortcomings and we are very, very hopeful that when the revised test is used and introduced we can utilize it to its fullest extent."—Matt Cronin