<div><p>The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday cleared French tennis player Richard Gasquet of doping and dismissed appeals by sports authorities for a tougher penalty.</p><p>International sport's top court acknowledged that the 23-year-old was likely to have been inadvertently contaminated with a minute trace of cocaine when he kissed a woman in a Miami night club in March.</p><p>"The player has been exonerated from any fault or negligence and the CAS has dismissed the appeals filed by the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency)," the court said in a statement.</p><p>The former world top 10 player tested positive for cocaine during the Miami Masters in March and was provisionally suspended in May before serving a two- and-a-half month retroactive ban.</p><p>Instead, the ITF and WADA wanted him to be hit with a ban of one or two years.</p><p>Gasquet's coach Eric Deblicker admitted that the decision was a welcome Christmas present.</p><p>"It's a huge relief, especially for Richard and his team," said Deblicker.</p><p>"He has been cleared, he's been back at work five weeks and everyday was difficult. Mentally it's been tough, but the most important thing has been seeing his joy on the court."</p><p>Deblicker added that Gasquet would start his 2010 season in Brisbane and then Sydney before taking part in the Australian Open.</p><p>The Lausanne-based CAS said that a doping offence was correctly reported because of the presence of a "minusucle" quantity of cocaine in Gasquet's urine sample.</p><p>However, they upheld Gasquet's contention about being contaminated through kissing and concluded that he could not be blamed.</p><p>"On a balance of probability, the CAS panel concluded that it was more likely than not that the player?s contamination with cocaine resulted, as Gasquet always asserted, from kissing a woman in a nightclub in Miami on the day before the anti-doping test."</p><p>"It was impossible for the player, even when exercising the utmost caution, to know that in kissing a woman who he had met in a totally unsuspicious environment, he could be contaminated with cocaine," the statement added.</p><p>The CAS found that Gasquet "had met the required standards of proof with respect to the way of ingestion."</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65615909&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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