PEDs: Lance Armstrong & MLB’s Lessons for Tennis

Performance Enhancing Drugs have made minimal news in the world of tennis. Major League Baseball begins considering MLB Hall of Fame credentials from players from the gaudy steroid era (juiced ball explanations ran afoul).  Cycling has Lance Armstrong possibly coming clean due to any number of first person accounts rendering plausible deniability moot.  Cycling and baseball do offer a cautionary tale for tennis.

What about tennis?  My gut says that tennis is still fairly clean as a sport.  Still, some PEDs help with the production of fast twitch muscle fibers.  These would help with racquet head speed in the same manner that they helped with baseball swing speeds.  Other PEDs help with stamina and recovery time.  Given that the tennis season stretches over 10 months with events on 6 continents, it is quite possible that some players may want a boost in recovering from matches and travel just as participants in cycling have done.

With no evidence, I am not going to level any accusations.  I have no one specifically to suspect.  I also think that slander is serious business.  I do think that if tennis does not maintain vigilance and increase sophistication to match new methods of dopping it may find that the bells tolling for cycling and baseball begin to toll for the ATP, WTA and ITF.

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