'I want to play'
Korda files legal challenge in ITF steroid case
Posted: Thursday January 14, 1999 09:10 PM
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Korda will attend a compulsory ATP players' meeting in Melbourne on Saturday which will discuss the issue AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Australian Open champion Petr Korda
has lodged a legal challenge to the International Tennis
Federation's planned appeal against the leniency of his penalty for
testing positive to steroids.
Korda's lawyers have begun proceedings in the High Court in
England in a bid to stop the ITF appealing its independent panel's
decision not to impose a one-year ban on him in the Court of
Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
"It's completely in the hands of my lawyers," Korda said
Thursday at the Colonial Classic, a warmup event for his Australian
Open title defense starting next week.
"We are asking the court if the ITF can appeal is own
decision."
Korda said he'd been instructed not to discuss the appeal and he
couldn't speculate on its chances of success.
"I want to play tennis at this time, I am not concentrating on
what's happening over there," he said.
"You never know your chances in your life, you can't predict
it. When we go on court we can't say for sure we are going to win.
"It's in the hands of my lawyers and I will follow them. If I
had the right I would talk about it."
Korda's solicitors, Bird and Bird, will ask the High Court to
rule that the ITF is not entitled to appeal to the Court of
Arbitration.
The ITF independent appeals board ruled originally that because
of "exceptional circumstances" it would not impose a 12-month ban
on the Czech.
Instead he was fined his Wimbledon prize money and the computer
points earned from the event.
Korda will attend a compulsory ATP players' meeting in Melbourne
on Saturday which will discuss the issue.
Several players are angry that Korda escaped ban and want to
know the special circumstances which the independent appeals panel
accepted for him to avoid suspension.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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