Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal is fed up with the malicious doping allegations hurled at him. The most notorious of which comes from a former health minister who claims the Spaniard's seven-month sabbatical in 2012 was a sanction for testing positive for banned substances.
BBC reported that the world number five plans to press charges against Roselyne Bachelot. She was the French secretary for Health, Youth Affairs and Sports from 2007 to 2010.
"A minister of France should be serious. This time is the time to go against her. We are going to sue her," Nadal declared. "This is going to be the last one, because I'm going to sue her. I am tired about these things. I let it go a few times in the past. Not anymore."
Nadal, who is considered to be greatest clay-court player of all time, has never tested positive for banned substances. However, he hasn't been immune to countless doping allegations.
French tennis captain and 1983 French Open champion Yannick Noah accused the 29-year-old Manacor native for taking performance-enhancing drugs in 2011. Noah offhandedly questioned the impeccable fitness of Spanish athletes compared to their French counterparts. He speculated that Spanish athletes must have been using PEDs, ESPN reported.
"How can a country (Spain) dominate sport from one day to the next?" Noah argued. "Had they discovered avant-garde training techniques and methods that no one else imagined?"
Retired tennis player Christophe Rochus also had the same doubts in 2013. He was dumbfounded by Nadal's consistent string of success. He wondered how the Spaniard could obliterate the competition at the 2012 French Open but then get injured two weeks later and had to withdraw from the London Olympics and US Open.
Numerous Spanish athletes and clubs have since showed their support for Nadal, including Chicago Bulls bigman Pau Gasol and the Real Madrid organization. Nadal said the wave of positive comments about his play has boosted his morale despite the malicious doping allegations, as per Tennis.com.
"I have been working so much since I [was] five years old, all my career, to have the success that I had," explained the clay-court king. "And always with the right way, always practicing with passion, with intensity, with love for the game."
