Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The women’s tennis tour is seeking some “procedural changes” to new anti-doping rules that have come into effect this year, Stacey Allaster, chairman and chief executive officer of the WTA Tour, said.

The International Tennis Federation this year signed up to the new World Anti-Doping Agency code, under which the top 50 players have to notify national anti-doping organizations of their whereabouts one hour every day for three months in advance. This enables the drug testers to arrive unannounced to collect samples. Failure to meet with testers three times in an 18-month period may lead to a suspension.

“We are supportive of the whereabouts program, and we are working together with the International Tennis Federation and men’s tour to see if some procedural changes, such as when they are in competition, can be made,” Allaster said in an interview from Bali today, where she was attending the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions. “We know where they are when they are in competition,” she added.

U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer was suspended for one year effective immediately yesterday by a doping tribunal in her native Belgium for failing to inform drug testers of her whereabouts three times. Fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse, a 2002 Wimbledon semifinalist, was also suspended for a year. The 95th- ranked player twice failed to make his whereabouts known, and also missed one doping test.

The whereabouts program has been criticized in the past by second-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain and Britain’s Andy Murray for being impractical and being too obtrusive on players’ lives.

Murray Comments

“I know how tough it is to keep up with the whole whereabouts thing,” Murray told reporters after he beat Spain’s Albert Montanes to advance to the semifinals of a tournament in Valencia, Spain, today.

“To miss three is a bit surprising - you just never know,” Murray said when asked about Malisse. “I would be shocked if Malisse, knowing him, was taking anything, and trying to avoid it, from knowing him a little bit, it wouldn’t surprise me if he just forgot. That’s the thing, you’ve got to be so on the ball with that stuff now, especially in a sport like tennis, where you could plan to be here from Saturday to the following Sunday, then you lose Monday and you’ve got to change every day. So it can be quite complicated.”

The fourth-ranked Scot added he has someone on his team making sure he has his whereabouts filled out in the right way.

Twenty-year-old Wickmayer is considering an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport, according to a statement on the player’s Web site.

Hand of God

“We have been stricken by the hand of God,” Wickmayer’s spokesman Rudi Kuyl said on the site.

Wickmayer has had a breakthrough season in making the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time and reaching a career-high ranking of No. 18 in the WTA Tour. She pulled out of a tournament she was playing in Bali this week following news of the suspension.

“All players support the importance of the tennis anti- doping procedures,” Allaster said. It’s against tour policy to comment on specific details of a case, she added.

“She is only 20-years-old and has endured a lot in a short life,” said Allaster, who has spoken to both the player and her father. “But she is the consummate professional and she understands the issue.”

Wickmayer is accompanied on tour by her father Marc. The two moved to the U.S. for two years to advance her tennis career after her mother died of cancer when Yanina was 9 years old.

The WTA Tour and the men’s ATP World Tour have been providing feedback to the ITF regarding the new anti-doping program throughout the year, Allaster said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Rossingh at the London sports desk at drossingh@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 12:42 EST