Argentine, Mariano Puerta, the 2005 French Open Finalist was banned by the ITF last December for eight years for his second doping offense.  So what is he guilty of?  His first offense was a nine month suspension in 2003 for taking an asthma medication with some steroid-like qualities and his second offense last June was for a sip from his wife’s glass of water which contained traces of an over-the-counter medicine she was taking for hypertension.  The ITF agreed that the unfortunate and inadvertent sip of water had no performance-enhancing effects, but still chose to impose a suspension which would have effectively ended Puerta’s career. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) just reduced Puerta’s suspension to two years which commenced last June and therefore ends in June, 2007.  In another highly-publicized case, CAS upheld the two year suspension of Bulgarian teen, Sesil Karatantcheva, the 2004 French Junior Champion who upset Venus Williams at the 2005 French Open.   Karatantcheva, who is sixteen, twice tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone last year.  She claimed that the nandrolone was due to the fact that she was pregnant (she subsequently had a miscarriage), but CAS rejected that argument.  Drugs and sports shouldn’t mix and since there have been 6 Argentine players who have had doping offenses, tennis clearly needs to be vigilant to maintain a clean sport.  However, sometimes there is a subtle difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.  I must admit that I’ve never heard of the CAS until recently, but I believe they “done good” in these cases.