Clean Comeback?
There has been much discussion over the past few weeks about the impressive play of former top-tenner Guillermo Canas of Argentina. Only a few players have beaten Roger Federer in the past 3-4 years and now Canas has done it twice in two consecutive hard-court tournaments. For a “clay-courter” from Argentina, it’s no mean feat. Canas is on the comeback trail after serving a 15-month suspension for doping, i.e. for a diuretic commonly used to mask performance-enhancing
drugs. To this day, Canas has denied his guilt and he continues to pursue legal means to appeal his suspension. Although Canas seems popular with his peers, there are still rumblings about how hard Canas was able to run against Federer at the end of three long sets. One can debate whether Canas was guilty or not and how “clean he is today,” but the bottom line is that that he was convicted of doping and has served his suspension. According to the rules of men’s professional tennis, Canas is allowed to compete again and he seems to be on the fast track back into the top ten. Clearly, the penalties for doping should be severe and the testing very strict. However, although it may be hard to forgive athletes who are convicted of doping, they should not be branded as guilty for life with a capital “D” on their chests as was sometimes done to criminals in ancient times. We live in a society where people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Let’s not lose sight of that during Canas’ second time around the tour… We need to have faith in the system and believe that players such as Canas are clean again until they are proven otherwise.
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