Tennis: Agassi Calls for Apology to Rusedski

Andre Agassi has called for the Association of Tennis Professinals to apologise to the British No2 Greg Rusedski, who tested positive for nandrolone but was exonerated by an anti-doping tribunal because the substance might have come from contaminated supplements provided by the ATP's own trainers.

"Assuming that there was a cross-contamination issue there should definitely be an apology," said Agassi, who will serve alongside Tim Henman on a 12-man task force appointed by the ATP to help players avoid the fate suffered by Rusedski and seven others, all of whom tested positive only to be cleared later.

"I think that there is a lot of concern," he said when asked if there was an atmosphere of fear in the locker room in the light of the Rusedski case.

"I think that players don't take anything any more that they're not fully aware of. And even so you take it with risk. I take aspirin with caution.

"The thought of somebody's livelihood being ripped to shreds for a mistake or for an accident is terrible.

"I believe that it is possible to have a set-up where all the nutrients we need are provided without cross-contamination and where there's no longer any defence for anybody to say that their nutrients are cross-contaminated."

The ATP stopped distributing supplements of any kind in May last year and Rusedski's positive test was in July 2003.

This year there have been another 16 players who have shown elevated, though not illegal, levels of nandrolone.

Since the problem was discovered in August 2002, 63 players have registered higher than normal levels.