Wickmayer and Malisse launch legal attack on WADA; Whereabouts rules under threat

Wickmayer and Malisse launch legal attack on WADA

BRUSSELS — Suspended Belgian tennis players Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse are launching appeals with European authorities challenging the legality of the whereabouts rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Victory at the European Commission in Brussels and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights could force WADA to change its rules on when and where athletes can be tested out of competition.

The players’ lawyer, Jean-Louis Dupont, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the fight against doping is worthwhile but questioned “a lack of proportionality of certain measures.”

The athletes are already appealing their one-year bans before the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.