ALLEGATIONS that the ATP covered up positive drug tests have been made in a book written by two Swedish journalists and Magnus Norman, a Swedish former leading player.

The claims come with the sport in turmoil after L’Equipe, the French daily newspaper, claimed last week that Mariano Puerta, the world No 10, failed a dope test after the French Open final in June.

Puerta, who faces a lifetime ban if found guilty of the alleged offence because he was found positive for an anabolic steroid in 2003 and suspended for nine months, denies that he took performance- enhancing substances and has instructed his lawyers to defend him. L’Equipe stated that he had used a prohibited stimulant, etilefrine, which is designed to aid people suffering from low blood pressure.

This latest controversy involving the book, which has been serialised in Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish newspaper, comes days after the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced that it would manage drugs tests in all men’s events from 2006.

The allegations in Tennis Off The Record, co-authored by Jonas Arensen and Patrik Cederlund, centre on the nandrolone controversy in the sport in 2003 and 2004. Analysis overseen by International Doping Tests and Management, a Swedish laboratory, found that a large number of players had been found positive for the anabolic steroid.

The book states that the ATP’s Anti-doping tribunal normally took about a year to reach a decision, but concluded in only five weeks that the ATP’s own staff had caused the adverse findings by inadvertently giving players contaminated supplements. The book states that the remaining tablets and drinks of the type handed out by the trainers were then cleared by laboratory analysis but the ATP had dropped the case.

Out of the seven positive findings, only one player, Bohdan Ulihrach, of the Czech Republic, was penalised and he was later exonerated.

An ATP spokesman said: “It is impossible for anyone to cover this up. Far too many people knew about the tests, there were too many cross-checks, and the World Anti-Doping Agency was informed. I cannot comment about the book because I have not read it.”

Three other leading Argentinians have been guilty of drugs offences in recent years, including Juan Ignacio Chela, in 2000, and Guillermo Cañas, who has appealed to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in Switzerland against a two-year ban for taking a diuretic.