Russia hit back

German doubles player Alexander Waske was quoted in German newspaper, Bild, on Wednesday saying an unnamed Russian had told him in Moscow that Haas had been poisoned prompting the International Tennis Federation to request hair and blood sample in order to investigate the claims.

But Russia, who won the tie 3-2 to set up a final showdown against the United States, have strenuously denied the claims adding that it was odd the rumours have not surfaced until a month after the match.

"We don't take them [the rumours] seriously," said Alexander Katsnelson, who was responsible for organising the tie from the Russian end. "This is just usual stuff coming from a guy who lost."

Katsnelson added that it would not have made sense for the Russians to poison Haas as he was Germany's weakest player in the tie. He did concede however that Haas, who was dismissed 6-2 6-2 6-2 by Igor Andreev in the opening rubber before withdrawing from the reverse singles with gastro-enteritis, could have suffered food poisoning "if he had eaten something somewhere".

"Since he arrived in Moscow and began training it was evident he was not in good shape physically, he was huffing and puffing on the court," Katsnelson continued. "I can categorically say the food at the venue was of the best quality. We had the same catering company preparing food for both teams so Haas can't blame the organisers for any of his problems."

The German tennis federation have also responded sceptically to Haas and Waske's claims saying there is no medical evidence to support them.

"There is no medical reason that justifies further, targeted tests with regard to poisoning," said DTB spokesman Oliver Quante. "As an association we must rely on facts in judging and assessing the situation and not on speculation.

"Therefore because we have no evidence of poisoning and because we do not know how reliable the informant is we must assume that it's not more than speculation. We lost that weekend before the Russian team was better than us over the three days."