2004 Jan 11 - David Lloyd supports Rusedski

David Lloyd - ex-British Davis Cup Captain - is 100% sure that Greg would not intentionally cheat to gain an advantage over his fellow professional tennis players.

He told the Mail on Sunday:

"I would stake my life that Greg has not deliberately taken a performance-enhancing drug.

"In my experience, he is one of the most honest men I have ever known. There is no chance on earth that he took something with a view to cheating on purpose. It is tragic that his life and his integrity have been placed on the line."

With Greg feeling isolated in Australia and the media circus gathering momentum around him Mr Lloyd offered Greg his hotel suite to help remove himself from the intense situation he would face at the official tournament accommodation.

Mr Lloyd continued:

"I thought Greg needed a friend. Greg wanted some advice on how to deal with a matter threatening to tear his life apart. He has tested positive for an amount of nandrolone that is about the size of a grain of salt.

"Had he taken the test 30 minutes later or drunk another half litre of water, it would not have shown up at all.

"If that's the law, that's the law, but everyone has to be treated equally and that is definitely not what is happening here.

"The ATP has to come clean. Other players have been let off, even though their samples have shown the same fingerprint as Greg's test.

"To me, it seems Greg is seen as a man on the way down with maybe just a couple of years left and the ATP have come under increasing pressure from the International Olympic Committee not to make tennis immune from prosecution.

"I am 100 per cent against cheating. A cheat should be banned for life. Yet by the same token it is very unfair for one person to be made a scapegoat."