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On October 28, the professional tennis player Gilles Simon will bring to the stores his book entitled “Ce sport qui rend fou” or in German “This sport drives you crazy”. To boost book sales, some 191-page passages appear in the media in advance.
One of these excerpts deals with the topic of doping. To give the chapter something explosive, Simon unpacks the old accusation against Rafael Nadal. As a reminder: the Spaniard was once accused of being involved in the affair of his compatriot and doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.
Former French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot hinted that Nadal had faked a knee injury in 2012 to comply with a “silent doping ban.” “We know that Nadal’s famous injury was due to a positive doping test,” Bachelot said in 2016, without presenting any evidence against Rafa.
Simon compares Federer to Nadal
The author of the book Simon thinks he knows where these rumors about Nadal come from. “For some it is difficult to understand that Rafael Nadal is a better tennis player than Roger Federer,” writes the former world number 6. That was the only reason the doping accusation was spread in the direction of the Sand King, according to Simon. “Nadal just doesn’t fit his pattern for most of them,” quotes the book’s “tennishead.com” portal.
Then the Frenchman puts the second big winner into play 20 times with Federer. “I would like to emphasize that we never talk about Federer’s body in this context. In this sense, he does not have to hide behind Nadal. In 2017, at 35, he played five sets against Nadal in Australia. That is extraordinary. But nobody has ever pointed it out, ”says Simon.
Is that a hidden doping accusation against Federer? If so, it would be unfounded. After all, there has never been evidence, much less evidence, in this direction. Regardless, it seems more plausible that the 35-year-old would like to make another box of statements like this one on the book counter. (cmü)
