Kendrick has doping ban reduced to 8 months

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - American tennis player Robert Kendrick had his doping ban reduced to eight months from one year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday. Kendrick tested positive for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine at the French Open on May 22. He blamed it on a capsule he took to combat jet lag. The 31-year-old American had sought a three-month ban, which would have allowed him to compete at the U.S. Open, but he won't return to competitive tennis until January. Kendrick has dropped to No. 110 in the rankings from a peak of 69 two years ago. Story continues below ↓ advertisement | your ad here CAS said "it was not disputed by the parties that there was no intent to enhance sporting performance." Its statement cited the recent case of Cesar Cielo and two other Brazilian swimmers, who were cleared of doping after blaming a contaminated food supplement. "Robert Kendrick did not show a comparable degree of caution as the Brazilian swimmers, who had used a product obtained on pharmaceutical advice," the CAS statement said. "Instead, he relied only on the information given by a blog on the Internet." Kendrick has been supported by several players who felt the punishment was too harsh. Fourth-ranked Andy Murray wrote on Twitter that Kendrick "should not be banned," while Kendrick's fellow American John Isner urged his Twitter followers to join a Facebook group in support of lifting the ban. The CAS statement concluded that "the eight-month suspension was appropriate to the degree of fault borne by the player."