Happy Sort-Of New Year!

Howdy. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday feasting, and have a little time to spend with me before diving back into eBay and the hunt for a great deal on a Gut-Be-Gone . . .

Our Christmas and New Year were pretty low key; the highlight was watching Cowboy Luke perform his first forward roll. By his fifth or sixth try, he was doing it like a regular gymnast, in one smooth motion starting with the chin-tuck and ending with Luke popping back up on his feet. The only thing missing was the arms flung up in Olympian triumph!

New Year’s Eve is my least favorite of holidays; it’s amateur night. In fact, I’ve toyed with the idea of completely abstaining from alcoholic beverages (think of it as a protest vote), but that would be like biting off my nose to spite my face. I hit on a better solution: I got loaded in the comfort of my home, at the bosom of my own family, and crawled into bed. I read a few pages of a truly amazing book about mountain man "Liver-Eating Johnson" and was out like a light by 10!

Ordinarily, I would be focusing on the positive as the New Year unfolds, and we certainly have a lot to look forward to, starting with the Martina Hingis comeback (I’ll be posting on that later). But I have one huge concern that I’m going to share up-front: I’m really concerned that over the past decade or so, due to a combination of circumstances including the basic incompetence and/or self-interest of the WTA and ATP, the pro tour has become a doper’s paradise.

Now, with the World Anti-Doping Agency in the picture (WADA is now in charge of drug-testing in tennis because of the ITF’s affiliation with the IOC; see my earlier posts on the subject), the gig may be up—unless WADA and the ATP and WTA negotiate some kind of protocol for straightening out tennis’s house to avoid a public relations catastrophe.

Note that this is pure speculation on my part; I know of no such negotiations taking place. This, however, is proven fact: Last year, tennis was flooded with doping stories and controversies—so much so that I’ve come around 180 degrees in my thinking on doping in tennis.

Formerly, I believed tennis was a clean sport for the obvious reason—lack of doping evidence. Now I have very grave doubts about that. Every time I turn around, it seems, I hear some new doping allegation—and it’s often from a solid source. I infuriated many of you with my "Doping Argies" posts, but my real concern is pretty soon you'll be able to substitute "Yanks" or "Brits" or "Frenchies" for "Argies."

Of course, I may be trapped in some bizzaro, negative parallel universe—you know how easy it is to spiral that way when you start buying into conspiracy theories. I almost wish that were true. But I'm going with my instincts, which are in alarm. I’m also disappointed by the amount of energy so many observers spend on defending proven dopers and discrediting the testing establishment.

I’ve said it before: When you look at the profile of tennis as a sport, you can see it’s tailor-made for doping.

There are fortunes at stake, especially for players from dysfunctional or disadvantaged societies. Tennis is an international sport of individuals where nobody knows what anybody else is doing (players routinely—and increasingly—vanish from the radar for months at a time), with no strong, central authority to police the game; the player organizations (WTA and ATP) don’t have the resources (and in some aspects, the political ability or will) to effectively fight doping.

And just as I was writing the words above—honest!—I received an e-mail from the ITF, announcing its new antidoping website.

Lastly, we know how much the mainstream media loves to hate tennis. How long do we have before the recent stream of doping stories, or a sensational bust, reaches critical mass and explodes in the MM?

I know this wasn’t a very cheery way to reconnect with you all, but this is what has been on my mind.

Let’s move on now, to more pleasant subjects.