Outraged tennis officials rushed to the defence of US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Tuesday and hit out at a Belgian government minister who claimed she had failed a doping test.
The furore overshadowed on-court action at the Australian Open where world number one Lindsay Davenport, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt led the charge of seeds into the second round.
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Kuznetsova's Russian compatriots Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva also eased past lowly-ranked opponents while Venus Williams stumbled before joining them in the second round.
Belgian regional sports minister Claude Eerdekens refused to apologise after he said Kuznetsova had tested positive for ephedrine, a stimulant found in over-the-counter cough medicines, at a charity match in Charleroi last month.
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The Russian has not broken any doping regulations and will remain in the Australian Open, WTA Tour chief Larry Scott said.
"I think what he [Eerdekens] has done is disgraceful. I know our players would like to see an immediate apology for the damage that it's done to our sport already," Scott said.
"It's just shameful what an irresponsible person like this can do to the reputation of a clean sport."
PROTESTED INNOCENCE
World number five Kuznetsova protested her innocence.
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"I am sure of my innocence and I will not allow these irresponsible accusations, which do not comply with credible anti-doping procedures, to distract me or my performance at the Australian Open," she said.
The doping storm broke at the weekend when Eerdekens said that a player had tested positive during a four-player charity exhibition in Charleroi last month.
He said Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne was not the player, throwing the spotlight on to the other three: Kuznetsova, Dementieva and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy.
Overnight Eerdekens said Kuznetsova had tested positive for ephedrine, which is banned "in competition", or WTA tournaments.
Exhibition tournaments like the Charleroi event are regarded as out of competition and ephedrine is not banned, Scott said. Players can also apply for an exemption to the rules if they are taking cold medicines which may contain ephedrine.
TYPIFIED ANGER
Kuznetsova's doubles partner, Australian Alicia Molik, typified the anger felt by players.
"I bought every single newspaper in the convenience store and threw them away. That's how strongly I felt about the issue," Molik said.
Fifth seed Kuznetsova will play unseeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the second round on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, her Fed Cup team mate and French Open champion Myskina -- seeded third in Melbourne -- was untroubled in beating error-prone Czech Kveta Peschke 6-1, 6-4.
While angry at being implicated in the scandal, sixth seed Dementieva still won 6-3, 6-3 over Ukrainian Alyona Bondarenko. Dechy, the 19th seed, beat Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6-4, 6-3.
Davenport helped eased concerns about her health after bronchitis forced her out of a warm-up event in Sydney last week by thrashing Spaniard Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-0. Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion, won only seven points in the second set.
"I felt pretty good, you can't really pick on too many things," Davenport said.
Williams, the eighth seed, stuttered to a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Greek Eleni Daniilidou. A Melbourne finalist in 2003, Williams stormed through the first set in just 23 minutes but was pushed harder in the second.
"I didn't have the best rhythm today," Williams said.
Molik, seeded 10th, kept local hopes alive when she downed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-3 after the Spaniard saved five match points only to surrender with a double fault.
Roddick got off to a slow start but snapped back to attention and fired 11 aces past Georgian Irakli Labadze on his way to a 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 first round win on Tuesday.
"Obviously, it wasn't great tennis in the first set. But the last couple of sets, I felt like I started hitting the ball a little bit better," Roddick said.
"You'd rather have momentum going that way than backwards."
Third seed Hewitt maintained his perfect record against Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. Australia's Hewitt took control from the outset in front of a packed centre court crowd and broke Clement's serve five times to win in under two hours.
Seventh seed Tim Henman kept British hopes alive with a 6-1, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 defeat of Cyril Saulnier of France.
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