Murray for tough anti-dope measures

ANDY Murray yesterday backed a tougher anti-doping regime for tennis, including biological passports and more blood tests, to keep the sport drug-free after the Lance Armstrong scandal.

As Serena Williams called the Armstrong saga "sad" and women's No. 1 Victoria Azarenka said the disgraced cyclist "deserves everything he gets", Murray said he would support tighter controls for tennis.

"I think it's something that all sports are now trying to improve their doping controls and make it better, you know, make sure that every sport's as clean as possible," Murray said.

"If that's more blood testing or the biological passports, that's something we need to do and improve in tennis, as well."

Biological passports are used in some sports including cycling to provide a running record of each athlete's test results, to detect unusual variations.

"I think as an athlete, as someone that works really, really hard since I was four or three, you know, I think it's a sad day for all athletes in general," Serena said. "Unfortunately, I think a lot of people now look and are like, OK, if somebody that great, what about everyone else in every other sport?"

Roger Federer too added his voice to it.

"What a sad story," the Swiss said. "Obviously he's hurt his sport in a big way, even though he helped it in the beginning.

"But now the burden they live under, all other sports maybe as well."

Email Story    Printable View    Blog Story    Copy Headline/URL