Sydney, Jan 11: Last July the ATP overturned a two-year ban and fine on Czech tennis player Bohdan Ulihrach. Six other players were not prosecuted despite registering high readings. Rusedski's positive test came two months after the ATP stopped handing out the electrolytes and he was believed to be the only player to have exceeded the allowable limit since the announcement. A statement from Rusedski's lawyers said: "In the Ulihrach case it was disclosed that the player was likely to have tested positive based upon substances given to him by his own governing body, the ATP. "Mr Rusedski took exactly the same substances and attributed his finding, also, to material given to him by the ATP. As such he argued that it was unfair that the ATP should seek to prosecute him for substances which they themselves had given him, and which in all probability had caused him to test positive.
"In this case the ATP argued unsuccessfully that Mr Rusedski could be held to be positive as he must be taken to have known that he should not take substances given to him by the ATP.


"The Tribunal unanimously rejected this contention."


The ATP is to expand its investigation into the rash of positive tests for nandrolone in the light of Rusedski being cleared. The ATP said in a statement that Norwegian doping expert Peter Hemmersbach and former Australian Solicitor General Robert Ellicott would join its investigating body. Ellicott is a member of the International Association of Athletics Federations' arbitration panel.


"The tribunal ruling underscores the problem of nandrolone contamination that we identified last year and still face today," said ATP chief executive officer Mark Miles.


"Given that low-level trace occurrences appear to be continuing, we felt it important to re-double our efforts to identify the cause of these test results."


Bureau Report