He made his comment after he advanced to the second round at Queen’s with a two-set win over Nicolas Mahut, just hours after Maria Sharapova announced her appeal against the two-year ban handed to her a week ago.
“My
thoughts haven’t changed really from March [when he condemned the
Russian for failing a drug test at the Australian Open]. I spoke quite a
lot about it then.' said Murray in quotes gotten from the Guardian UK.
“I
do feel like if you’re cheating and are caught, and you are gaining
advantage on your opponents, then you have to be punished for that. It’s
not what’s fair or not, in terms of time. That’s up to the governing
bodies, the courts and stuff and the lawyers, to decide. But my view
hasn’t changed since March at all.”
“I don’t
really see that as being a valid excuse. If you’re taking any
medication, it’s your responsibility as the athlete to check and make
sure what you’re taking is legal. There can be the odd case where, if
you were given something by a doctor, he tells you, “Oh, this is, I
don’t know, a vitamin’, and it’s not, then that’s different. But if
you’re taking medication, there is absolutely no reason why you
shouldn’t know whether it’s on the banned list or not.”
He
said he would not entrust ask his management to monitor what he took,
either – as Sharapova has done with her agent, Max Eisenbud, who claimed
he did not alert the player to a warning about the banned drug
meldonium because he was holidaying and did not see the emails from the
International Tennis Federation.
“No, Dr
Turner, who works at the LTA [would inspect any drug he took]. I only
take an anti-inflammatory now and then if I’m having problems with my
back or my hips. But he would be the guy I would speak to about that,
for sure.”
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