Tennis Player Wayne Odesnik Dealt 15-Year Ban For Second Drug Violation

Tennis player Wayne Odesnik was given a 15-year ban by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for a second doping violation. The fairly unknown American athlete gained notoriety in 2010 when he was caught with eight vials of HGH at an Australian customs office.

He was originally given a two-year suspension, which was reduced to a year after he cooperated with officials. But he continuously maintained his innocence, claiming he never knowingly ingested HGH.

Yet, even if he was on the growth hormone, the American athlete has had a disappointing career. The highest he was ever ranked was 77th and that was way back in 2009. On top of this, the farthest he reached in a Grand Slam was the third round of Roland Garros in 2008. And finally, he only participated in one final on the ATP World Tour, the 2009 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets.

The second violation was announced in a statement by the ITF. The organization verified that three separate tests contained various banned substances, including “metabolites of methenolone; metabolites of androst-(2,3)-en-17-one; and GHRP-6.”

The 15-year ban officially started on January 30, 2015. Furthermore, all of his tournament results from that time period — Happy Valley Challenger, Australian Open and Maui Challenger — are hereby disqualified, meaning he has to return the prize money.

Moments after ITF’s announcement, the 29-year-old athlete announced his retirement. “In December 2014, I unknowingly ingested a contaminated over-the-counter supplement. Upon learning of my positive test results, I was immediately heartbroken as words could not describe my shock and disappointment,” Odesnik said in a statement. “Being the most tested American tennis player on tour, I would never knowingly have taken any chance of consuming a banned substance.”

Still, past and current top athletes are happy with ITF’s decision, especially since most did not like Wayne’s reduced sentence in 2010. Both Andy Murray and former number one in the world Andy Roddick released tweets damning Odesnik.

Murray even clarified his Tweet to BBC Sport: “It is good for tennis that they got him off tour. It is the end of his career and he can’t even come on site to events or coach. That is a good thing… He is a cheat and it is good for everyone in tennis he is dealt with in the right way.”

Even more of the soft spoken players have released statements regarding the matter, mostly applauding the decision made by the ITF. “Players and athletes should know if they cheat, they get caught,” Roger Federer told ESPN. “I’m all for a clean sport, and that’s why you’ve got to catch those guys who don’t do the things they are supposed to be doing.”