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Monday, 9 April, 2001, 11:28 GMT 12:28 UK
Chela suspended over drugs test
![]() Chela: "This has been a tremendous tragedy"
Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela has been suspended from professional tennis for three months and thrown out of the world's top 500 for doping.
The 21-year-old, who finished 67th in the world in December 2000, must forfeit all ranking points accumulated over the past eight months.
He must also concede the $8,550 earned at the 2000 Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati, where he tested positive for methyltestosterone, a prohibited steroid under the anti-doping rules. The loss of points means he will drop from his current ranking of 76 to outside the top 500 when his suspension ends at the beginning of July. A tennis anti-doping tribunal concluded that Chela, who represented Argentina at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, did not knowingly take the steroid. Tough but fair A disappointed Chela said: "For me, this has been a tremendous tragedy, as over the past eight months I already have been through some very rough times. "It has been devastating to my career. "All my hard work has been virtually wiped away by the forfeiture of points, and I now must sit out three months before returning to play the lower-level pro events that I believed were behind me." Mark Miles, who is CEO of the ATP, said: "It's a tough yet fair decision given the circumstances. "It demonstrates again that our anti-doping programme is effective in both identifying violators and punishing them appropriately."
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