The court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland, for Sport yesterday banned former Australian Open champion Petr Korda for a year after prohibited substances were detected in his urine samples during the 1998 Wimbledon Championships.

The ban, which lasts until August 31st 2000, is academic as Czech Korda retired after this year's Wimbledon but the arbitrators upheld the appeal filed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The CAS therefore acknowledge the presence of nandrolone in the sample and imposed the ban. The three-man panel noted that Korda did not challenge the procedure and the results of the doping control.

The panel also decided there were no exceptional circumstances under which Korda could be exonerated.

The test in question was performed on July 1st, 1998 and an International Olympic Committee laboratory in Lausanne confirmed that both A and B samples showed traces of the banned steroid Nandrolone.

Korda was subsequently made to return his Wimbledon prize-money that year and forfeited computer points on the ATP rankings earned during that tournament.

The ITF then appealed to the CAS to invoke a year-long ban.