French cycling team manager Marc Madiot has called on tennis chiefs to suspend Novak Djokovic.
The Serb was left enraged before his recent match with Cam Norrie when he was interrupted by doping control 90 minutes before the start.
World Anti Doping Agency officials paid Djokovic a visit in the lead-up to the showdown in Malaga, which he’d later win.
And the International Tennis Integrity Agency then confirmed Djokovic didn’t give his required sample until after the match.
Novak Djokovic took his anti-doping test after his win over Cam Norrie last week
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The 36-year-old didn’t break any rules because players can be tested before or after any match.
Yet Madiot wants Djokovic to be suspended.
Speaking to RMC Sport, he said: “We have the right to test before and after a competition.
“He refused the test before the competition.
“If the anti-doping body does its job, Mr Djokovic must be suspended.
“In cycling, you are subjected to a test and if you refuse, you are [deemed to test] positive.
“If you are positive, you are sanctioned. You do not have the right to refuse a test, that’s the regulation.
“There are products in the range of doping products that can be detected over an extremely limited time.
“If you do not check before the start of the competition, the time of the competition allows you to eliminate traces of the doping product.
“That is the reason why the test before the competition was introduced.
“It’s surreal to be warned – it’s no longer an unexpected test.”
Madiot didn’t seem to be aware that rules in tennis differ to those in cycling, however.
And Djokovic explained himself after his win over Norrie, admitting he’d been left angry by the debacle.
“I didn’t believe that they could make such a decision,” he said.
“In 20 and more years of my career, it never happened to me that an hour-and-a-half before the match, I needed to go for doping control.
“I have my own routine.
“I don’t need that distraction, to have my urine and blood taken, to think about whether I can give urine at that moment.
“I didn’t see any reason or logic, but I hope they change such decisions.
“It’s a shame what they did.
“They told me that one of the important reasons for that decision was that it [the match] would end late, so that they would give us more time to rest.
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Marc Madiot has called for Novak Djokovic to be suspended from tennis
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“I support testing myself or anyone – a hundred times, no problem, but not before the match.”
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has backed Djokovic, too, and insisted checks must be carried out after matches instead of before.
“There is a unanimous rule: checks are always carried out after the match,” she stated.
“As there is a dehydration effect, the urine concentration is greater.
“The tests to check a doping product are closer to reality because the urine is more concentrated. It’s making a ‘trial’ which is completely false.”
