TENNIS in DEPTH.

Today will see another development in Gasquet’s ‘Cocaine Kiss’ controversy, as the Frenchman is not playing at the Paris Masters and is instead expected in Lausanne, for a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In July, an independent tribunal cleared Gasquet – who was initially suspended for 2½-months – to return to the tour, after accepting his story that he failed a drugs test in March because the substance had entered his system after he kissed a girl known only as ‘Pamela’ in a Miami nightclub the evening before.

 But the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Tennis Federation have appealed to the court in Lausanne, requesting that he should be banned for at least a year, perhaps even the maximum two years.

Gasquet told the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Today that he failed a drug test in March because he kissed a woman in a nightclub who contaminated him with cocaine.

He was suspended for 2 1/2 months, but the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Tennis Federation appealed to CAS to give him a doping ban of at least one year.

CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb said a verdict is expected in early December.

“Everything went as expected and Richard Gasquet has, of course, had his chance to speak,” Reeb said after the seven-hour hearing.

“Now the arbitrators will begin their deliberations, which are going to take around three to four weeks until a final judgment will be communicated to the parties.”

That would allow Gasquet, who was suspended for the French Open and Wimbledon, to prepare for the Australian Open in January if he is cleared by the CAS panel of three lawyers.

The timing of Agassi’s autobiography Open is unlikely to have helped Gasquet’s cause.

Will Agassi’s admission in his book that he avoided a ban for crystal meth by claiming he had inadvertently taken the stimulant when sipping from a friend’s spiked soda cast a shadow on Gasquet’s defence? The authorities will decide.

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