ROTTERDAM, Feb 13: Tennis is paying the price for being an Olympic sport and its new dope testing regime treats players like criminals, world number one Rafael Nadal says.

The Spaniard is leading criticism against the procedure adopted by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), who signed the World Anti-Doping agency (WADA) protocol last year.

“It is not fair to have persecution like that,” Nadal told reporters here at the World Indoor Tournament.

From the start of this year, players ranked in the top 50 must nominate one hour daily when they will be available for testing, as per WADA regulations.

However, Nadal, Briton Andy Murray and Gilles Simon say it is harassment of tennis players.

“They make you feel like a criminal,” Nadal said. “Not even my mother knows where I am every day. It is very difficult to know where you are going to be tomorrow especially in a sport like tennis.”

The tighter dope control is a result of tennis being an Olympic sport, but Nadal wonders if it is worth it.“Sure we want to be an Olympic sport, but I think we don’t want to pay a price like this for an Olympic sport,” he stated. “I am the first one who wants a fair competition, completely clean competition for everybody but the forms can be totally different.”

French world number eight Simon almost missed an out-of-competition test while at home in Paris.

“I rescheduled a training session at Roland Garros and went to the zoo with my girlfriend, but I was called by the controller and just returned in time,” he said. Briton Murray hoped the testing could be simplified.—Agencies