LAUSANNE More than 12 months after returning a positive test for the steroid nandrolone at Wimbledon, former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda was Tuesday suspended for 12 months. Korda, 31, quit the pro tennis circuit in July after failing to gain a wild card to Wimbledon and lost in the qualifying round. After a Court of Arbitration for Sports hearing in Lausanne, he was suspended from Sept. 1, 1999 until Aug. 31, 2000 even though he is inactive.

A CAS panel ruled that there were no "exceptional circumstances" which, under International Tennis Federation rules, would exonerate Korda from any suspension. Korda's case went to the CAS for a final ruling after the ITF won an appeal in a British court to seek a drug ban on the Czech player. The ruling ends a protracted legal battle between Korda and the sport's world governing body after he returned positive samples of nandrolone following his Wimbledon quarterfinal elimination to Britain's Tim Henman in July last year.

He avoided a mandatory one-year suspension, set out in the ITF's anti-doping policy, when an ITF appointed independent appeals panel accepted his claim that he didn't know how the drug got into his body. (AP)