Argentine doubles player Hood admits positive test

Argentine doubles specialist Mariano Hood has admitted testing positive for a banned drug at the French Open.

"I have been informed that there was a positive result in the doping (test)," Hood told Argentina's Radio Del Plata on Thursday night.

Argentine media reported on Friday that Hood had been informed by the International Tennis Federation and that the substance he took was finasteride.

According to the reports, Hood had been taking the substance for nine years in pill form to prevent hair loss and it was added to the ATP's list of banned drugs last November as a masking agent.

Hood's positive result was reported by the French sports daily L'Equipe on Wednesday, the same day it said his compatriot Mariano Puerta had tested positive for the stimulant etilefrine after reaching the French Open men's singles final in June. Puerta has denied the report.

"I've contacted my lawyers, I don't have much more information," said Hood, who was playing in the Metz Open in France this week.

Hood, 32, is Argentina's highest ranked men's doubles players at number 26 in the world and has won 13 titles, the last at Palermo in partnership with Martin Garcia on Sunday.

Media reports said it was Hood's second doping test this year and that he gave a negative result at the Australian Open in January.

Six Argentines have tested positive since 2001 including Guillermo Coria, who was suspended for seven months in 2002, Guillermo Canas, handed a two-year ban in August, and Puerta, who was banned for nine months in 2003 and faces a life suspension if found guilty again.