Tennis

Czech Davis Cup player Minar banned for 8 months

Published Oct. 14, 2009 6:14 p.m. ET

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The International Tennis Federation said the sample, which was taken after the Davis Cup quarterfinal against Argentine on July 11, contained the banned stimulant methylhexanamine. The substance was in a food supplement called "Tight! Xtreme."

Minar told the ITF he did not intend to cheat and took the product following professional advice, without knowing it contained a prohibited substance.

The ITF said the ban will end on March 10, 2010, and ruled that the 25-year-old Minar's results this year from tournaments in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Gstaad should be disqualified.

"The ITF accepted Mr. Minar's account of the background to his positive test," the federation said in a statement. "Under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, however, it is a player's strict personal duty to ensure that no prohibited substance enters his or her body, whether as an ingredient in a nutritional supplement or otherwise."

Czech tennis federation president Ivo Kaderka said Minar has no plans to appeal the ban, in order to avoid being hit with a longer ban.

"I don't agree with a punishment for someone who has not been doping, but just purchased a food supplement which was supposed to be a drug free," Kaderka told The Associated Press. "That's a problem for me."

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