BRUSSELS, Jan 17: U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has tested positive for a banned drug, Belgian sports minister Claude Eerdekens was quoted as saying on Monday.

Belga news agency reported Eerdekens as saying the Russian player tested positive for the stimulant ephedrine after an exhibition match in Charleroi on Dec 19.

Eerdekens named Kuznetsova, 19, after earlier saying one of the four women involved in the exhibition match had tested positive and Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne had been cleared.

That put the spotlight on the other three - Kuznetsova, fellow-Russian Elena Dementieva and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy. Rumours of the minister's initial remarks surfaced at the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier on Monday and Kuznetsova, ranked fifth in the world, denied ever taking drugs.

"I am not worried. I am definitely not using nothing to push myself up in the game," she said, adding she had been tested for drugs 11 times last year. "I'm pretty sure that everybody's pretty clean... because the anti-doping programme it doesn't allow us to take nothing." -Reuters