Martina Hingis on Cocaine?

Now that the dust has somewhat started to settle after Martina Hingis’ media bombshell yesterday, I think it is time to take a look at six things that just don’t make sense about this whole affair.

1. Just because the tests showed evidence of cocaine, it does not mean that Martina Hingis is a cocaine addict.
Remember the whole Greg Rusedski mess a few years ago? Critics all over the world were calling poor Greg a cheat and worse because “evidences” of nandralone were found in his body. He maintained his innocence from the start, and lo and behold, four months later he was cleared of any wrong-doing.

Now, I’m definitely not saying that Hingis received cocaine accidentally from supplements provided to her by the Tour, but it does remind us to make sure that the allegations are 100% correct, before labeling someone as a cheat or a doper. Hingis and her legal staff are maintaining that there are “various inconsistencies” with the samples referenced, so it will be interesting to see what facts come to light in the next few months or years.

2. In typical Hingis fashion, she broke the news on her own terms.
Not only did this spare us the “Oh, I’m not guilty, but I accidentally drank tainted gatorade routine”, but it does lend credibility to her claims of innocence. Like one of On the Baseline’s commenters (pov) said on a previous post, Hingis made the choice to go public.

3. What in the world is going on between the ITF, the WTA Tour, and the Anti-Doping program?
This looks like the classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, making this more of a media firestorm than it should be. Larry Scott’s statement yesterday was supposed to be damage control, but it fanned only the flames.