Two-time loser Wayne Odesnik emerges a winner

SY LERMAN

Odesnik received a 15-year suspension from the International Tennis Federation in 2015. This followed a second guilty verdict related to doping, and effectively ended his tennis career.

At the time, he was ranked seventh in the United States, 77th in the world, and featured among a handful of the leading Jewish players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) circuit.

Today, Odesnik is a prominent consultant and adviser with a leading Florida-based financial institution in America.

“It was not easy recreating my life and lifestyle under traumatic circumstances at the age of 30,” says Odesnik. “I believe varied experiences over a period of 10 years on the international circuit, both good and bad, all helped shape me into a better person. It enabled me to advise others on all the personal and monetary problems life dishes out to you in circumstances that are often beyond your control.”

Odesnik’s father, Harold, a jeweller by profession, and his mother, Janice, a well-known gymnast in Johannesburg, immigrated to the US. Odesnik spent much of his formative years on the tennis courts of Boca Raton where the family had settled.

“Tennis effectively became my life,” says the left-handed sportsman. “It is with great pride that I was able to take the court against some of the best players the game has produced like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, even if I was not able to beat them.”

He played other formidable opponents like Juan Martin del Potro, a former US Open champion and world number three, and other players ranked in the world top ten like Sam Querrey and Ivan Ljubičić.

Odesnik has never won an ATP world tour singles title, but he was coming close when his career took a nose dive in 2010. At the time, he had been the champion of 14 Challenger and Futures tournaments, and had progressed to the third round in elite grand slam events.

He was apprehended on entering Australia with seven vials of the banned human growth hormone in his possession, and consequently suspended for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after pleading guilty. His sentence was reduced to one year after providing what was described as “valuable information” regarding doping practices in tennis.

Odesnik’s tennis career from 2011 continued to have a good deal of controversy before the bubble truly burst in 2014. It was then that the ITF revealed that he had failed a number of mandatory doping tests involving methenol, androst, peptide, and other banned substances. A disciplinary hearing in 2015 delivered the stunning 15-year sentence.

The suffocating tennis ban was notably supported by Federer, Nadal, Andy Murray, and his one-time hitting partner and US number one, Andy Roddick. They agreed that as a second offender, “he should have learnt his lesson”.

Odesnik, however, is adamant that he didn’t deliberately do anything wrong. He didn’t believe that the hormones he brought into Australia that resulted in his first suspension were for his own use, and bringing them into the country in itself “was not an offence”.

As to the positive tests that resulted in the 15-year suspension that ended his tennis career, Odesnik said that he was unaware that the medication he was using at the time for his injuries included any of the damning ingredients.

“Would I be so stupid as to use banned substances deliberately when I was probably about the most tested player on the ATP circuit,” he says, “and knowing full well I was sure to be detected after going through testing at almost every tournament in which I played.”

But on the question of appealing to the ITF to review his severe suspension and reduce it, if nothing else, Odesnik says he now has “a different life”. Besides, after almost four years out of tournament competition, it would be “super human” to get back to where he was in the past.

“But I have no regrets or grudges,” he says. “Tennis will always be a part of my life, and the memories and experiences I have of the game will remain indelibly in my mind. In fact, I feel lucky I was able to make my mark to the extent I did in such a competitive field.

“Preparing for a new step in life has not been easy. But experience of one kind and another has helped me to meet my goals. The milestones I encountered and surmounted are something I cherish.

“What is more, I believe the trauma I experienced at the end of it all has given me greater insight into life, and is helping me to help others in the vocation I am following.”

As to the backhanders he received from some players who were his pals, “well, that’s life”, he says.