LONDON: Tennis veterans Roger Federer and Andy Murray warned the game's authorities that they need to spend more in order to prevent a doping scandal in the sport.
World No.2 Murray does not want to see tennis suffer the sort of problems that are currently rocking athletics, after a WADA-commissioned report this week accused Russia of running a state-sponsored doping programme.
Murray believes the best way to do this is to allocate more resources to anti-doping measures in order to stop cheats.
"I follow that stuff all the time. What has happened with Russia is really bad, but I don't think it's just a Russia problem or just an athletics problem. It's up to the governing bodies just how much they want to tackle it because with the amount of money and profit sport actually makes, there needs to be enough spent on anti-doping," Murray was quoted as saying by Dailymail on Friday.
"The prize money we have in tennis is extremely high and we need to look at how much we are spending on this area. I'm not an expert, I don't know what is enough and I don't know what other sports do, but in tennis we should be doing as much as we can."
Earlier, Federer also stressed that tennis players should undergo more tests, saying he is still surprised when he walks off court and is not routinely asked to provide a doping sample.
"They are trying their most but we can do more. Whenever you make the quarter-finals of a tournament, when the points are greater, the money is greater, you should know that you will be tested. That would be very clear and simple. And if they keep the tests for longer, I'm all for that, not just weeks and months, years I'm talking about. That's the way to scare people," Federer said.