NADA brings tennis players, National championship under its ambit

Widening its net, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has, for the first time ever, collected samples from close to 20 tennis players competing at the National Tennis Championships at DLTA Complex here.

Players such as top seed Arjun Kadhe, Siddhant Banthia, Ishaque Eqbal and former Under-14 champion Ajay Malik were among those who were randomly picked to give blood and urine samples on Monday.

A few players were asked to provide samples before their matches began while others provided samples after the matches.

"We had created a new system early this year where risk assessment, across the sports, was done. On the scientific basis of that, we worked out the test distribution plan. We identified which are the tournaments where we have to conduct test and this event came in that list, so we sent officials," NADA chief Navin Agarwal told PTI.

Not only at the national championships, the NADA has tested top Indian players in and out of competitions in international circuits this year ...