Andy Murray isn’t known for his warm, effusive manner, and when it comes to doping it seems he is prepared to stick his neck out.

Whilst many on the pro circuit have remained mum on Maria Sharapova’s doping scandal (her drug of choice HERE), the Scot says her claims of ignorance just don’t fly with him.

Sharapova is currently appealing her two-year sentence, with this below from the Daily Mail:

“To be honest I don’t really see that as being a valid excuse,” Murray said.

“If you’re taking any medication, it’s your responsibility as the athlete to check and make sure that what you’re taking is legal.

“Obviously there can be the odd case where, if you were given something by a doctor and he tells you, ‘Oh, this is a vitamin’ and it’s not, it’s something completely different, then that’s different.

“But if you’re taking medication, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t know whether it’s on the banned list or not”…

“I do feel like if you’re cheating or caught and gaining advantage on your opponents then you obviously have to be punished for that,” Murray said.

“It’s not what’s fair or not in terms of time. That’s up for the governing bodies, the courts and the lawyers, to decide upon.”

He’s not alone in those feelings – just last week Roger Federer felt compelled to speak out too. Below from NewsAU:

“It doesn’t matter if they did it on purpose or not — I don’t really see the difference. You need to know what goes into your body, you have to be 100 per cent sure of what’s going on, if you’re not, you’re going to be damned.

“Of course she’s got the right to fight the case, like everybody else as well. I’m just for zero tolerance.

“I stay by my word that we should be saving blood samples for 10, 15, 20 years to come, so you have to scare away the people who think they could cheat.

“You have to scare them so they will not do it, so they could retroactively also be banned, and take away titles and so forth.”

I like the way Roger is thinking, because unfortunately the cheats always seem to be a little ahead of the authorities.

Store those samples, remove titles and prize money retroactively, say goodbye to doping (kinda).

[sources:dailymail&newsau]

[imagesource:here]