Wickmayer, Malisse gain hope after court overturns bans

BRUSSELS - US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer and her Belgian compatriot Xavier Malisse will be aiming for possible Australian Open wild cards next month after a court overturned one-year bans for missing anti-doping tests.

The pair are now free to play, a Belgian court decided, suspending bans handed down to the players by a Flemish tribunal last month.

Wickmayer and Malisse were sanctioned for violating the controversial “whereabouts” rule under which players must notify anti-doping czars of their location for every day of the year in case testers wish to show up unexpectedly.

Malisse, a 2002 Wimbledon semi-finalist, had said that at age 29, his career would effectively be over if he were suspended.

The two were had been going ahead with further legal action, with appeals of the bans to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Officials said technicalities in the latest ruling still needed to be worked out, but the decision give the two hopes of quickly resuming their career.

The Belgian tennis federation reported on its website that administrative errors in the case were the basis for the overturning of the ban.