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 ITF wins appeal to seek ban on Korda
Posted: Thursday March 25, 1999 03:38 PM
LONDON (AP) -- The International Tennis Federation won an appeal Thursday to seek a drug ban on 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda. Korda's case will now go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, continuing a protracted legal battle between the Czech player and the sport's world governing body. Korda tested positive for nandrolone after his quarterfinal Wimbledon loss last July to Tim Henman. He was found to have contravened anti-doping rules but escaped a one-year ban when an ITF-appointed independent appeals panel accepted his claim that he didn't know how the drug got into his body. Instead of the ban, his prize money and ranking points at the Wimbledon championship were withdrawn. But the lenient penalty sparked outrage as professional players threatened to boycott. The ITF then lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in January on the ground's that the panel had misapplied its anti-doping rules. Korda subsequently appealed to the High Court, which ruled that the decision of the ITF's independent appeals panel could not be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But that decision was overturned Thursday by the Court of Appeal in London, allowing the ITF to proceed with the case. In a statement released Thursday, ITF president Brian Tobin said the sport's governing body "always maintained" that the Court of Arbitration for Sport was the appropriate forum for the case. It wasn't immediately known when the Court of Arbitration would hear the case.
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