Djokovic pained at doping in sport following Armstrong revelations

London: Novak Djokovic has said he is happy that there are not many cases of athletes consuming performance-enhancing drugs in tennis, and added that everyone related to the sport is seeking to make it pure.

Djokovic would start his US Open title defence on Tuesday against world number 69 Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, weather permitting. But the tennis is not uppermost in his mind at the moment, and it is the state of professional sport that concerns him most. As the US Anti-Doping Agency imposed a lifetime ban on Lance Armstrong and stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles, the spotlight was on other alleged drugs cheats in America. Djokovic, who turned 2011 in one of the finest seasons any player has ever recorded as he went unbeaten for the first six months of that year, is depressed after listening to news about top athletes using unfair means to achieve success. However, Djokovic puts his success down to sheer hard work, determination and belief. “Obviously, when I heard that story and many others, I’m disappointed as an athlete because I know how much it takes to get to where we are, and on the top of our own sport, how much sacrifice, commitment, hard work it takes,” The Daily Express quoted Djokovic, as saying. “I’m not really trying to make a statement here of whose fault is it or not. I leave that to authorities and obviously the authorised organisations to claim who is positive or not. In the end we are all seeking to have a pure sport in every sense of that word,” he added. “I’m happy that in tennis we do not have that many cases and we are trying to keep that going, to keep tradition and to protect the integrity of the sport,” he said. ANI