Kuznetsova at Center of Storm

Damage control started not long after tennis players and officials got up to prepare for another day at the Australian Open and read the 108-point, front-page headline today in the Herald Sun: TENNIS DRUG MYSTERY

Pictured on the front page were Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Elena Dementieva of Russia and Nathalie Dechy of France. The accompanying story said there was a “drug cloud” hanging over the three players.

Jarring, yes. And another jolt came a few thousand miles away when a Belgian sports minister identified the U.S. Open champion, Kuznetsova, as having tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine at a four-player exhibition in Charleroi in December, according to various media outlets in Belgium. The B sample has not been tested yet.

One fact left unsaid, however, was that ephedrine is not prohibited out of competition under the World Anti-Doping Agency drug code.

So it was time for a news briefing -- or two -- in an effort to slow down a fast-rolling public-relations boulder.

As the story had picked up steam over the weekend, the response from the Women’s Tennis Assn. had been limited to a brief statement Monday, which barely made American papers.

Thus, the “cloud” that hung over the three players did not begin to lift until today.

Before naming Kuznetsova, the Belgian sports minister, Claude Eerdekens, had cast suspicion on all three when he said that someone -- but not the fourth player, Belgium’s Justine Henin-Hardenne -- had tested positive at the Belgium event.

Kuznetsova said she had been taking medicine for a cold during the exhibition. Whether she informed the testing authorities was unclear.

“I don’t believe she had,” WTA Chief Executive Larry Scott said during a crowded news conference at Melbourne Park.

Before the media briefing, the WTA issued a statement by Scott that sharply criticized Eerdekens:

“In all my years in sports, I have never seen a more disgraceful and irresponsible act by a sport official. This is an egregious breach of ethical standards of confidentiality and due process which govern anti-doping procedures, which require the presumption of innocence and the strictest confidentiality.”

He continued on that theme during the news conference.

“I think what [Eerdekens] has done is disgraceful,” Scott said. “I think he’s undermined sport. I think he’s undermined sport in Belgium.”

Scott also said the players wanted an apology from the sports minister.

Kuznetsova has been besieged by phone calls at her hotel, and her practice session on Court 16 this morning was packed with reporters, TV crews and onlookers. She declined to comment, saying she was not allowed to conduct a news conference.

Later, Kuznetsova did issue a statement through the WTA.

“I pride myself on being a clean athlete of the highest integrity and am offended by these disgraceful accusations,” Kuznetsova said, adding that she was tested more than 10 times last year. “There is absolutely no reason why I would take a stimulant to enhance my performance at an out-of-competition exhibition match in the middle of the off-season.”

Dementieva and Dechy were scheduled to play their first-round matches later today. “She’s very upset,” said Dementieva’s agent, Micky Lawler of Octagon.

Other players were upset by the media coverage.

“I don’t think it’s very fair on any single one of those three girls that are featured on the cover of the papers,” said Alicia Molik of Australia, who is Kuznetsova’s doubles partner. “In fact I was down at my local convenience store this morning and I saw the papers and I read the front page. And I bought every single newspaper in the convenience store and threw them away. That’s how strongly I felt. ...

“It’s a non-issue. I feel like it has been misreported.”