MELBOURNE, Australia – Svetlana Kuznetsova tested positive for the banned stimulant ephedrine during an off-season charity event, a Belgian sports minister said yesterday, but WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott doubts the U.S. Open champion will be penalized.

The Russian was tested during the December 18-19 Women’s Tennis Trophy exhibition tournament in Charleroi, said Claude Eerdekens, a regional sports minister. Kuznetsova’s backup sample hasn’t been tested; rules call for two positive samples before punishment.

“Understanding what I do now, I find it very hard to imagine that there will be anything of any significance resulting from this,” Scott told the Associated Press.

He said he had tried without success to speak with Eerdekens and called the Belgian’s announcement “premature, highly irresponsible, and damaging to the sport. It’s something that could possibly be a common cold remedy, and the player might be innocent. Yet he’s gone ahead and publicly tainted the sport.”

Kuznetsova, 19, is seeded fifth in the Australian Open and beat Jessica Kirkland of the United States 6-1, 6-1 in the first round yesterday.

“There is absolutely no reason why I would take a stimulant to enhance my performance at an out-of-competion exhibition match in the middle of the offseason,” Kuznetsova said in response to the charge. “I pride myself on being a clean athlete of the highest integrity and am offended by these disgraceful allegations.”

“I am sure of my innocence.” She also noted she was tested 11 times last season.

Ephedrine is often contained in cold remedies. It also is used in weight-reducing formulas, and some athletes take it to get a short-term energy burst and to increase alertness. Use of banned stimulants can draw a suspension of up two years, but the penalty can be reduced or waived if the athlete was using cold medicine.

On Saturday, Eerdekens said someone at the four-person Charleroi event had tested positive but did not identify the player or substance. Yesterday, he issued a statement saying it was Kuznetsova.

“We saw it was ephedrine and we saw it was an illegal product,” he said by telephone from his home in Andenne. Because the second sample’s result isn’t known, Eerdekens said, “We do not want to prejudge her innocence.”

The minister told the AP that the report he received did not mention that Kuznetsova asked for a medical exemption for ephedrine.

Kuznetsova was seeded ninth when she won her first Grand Slam title in September, becoming the third straight Russian major champion. Her father coached five Olympic and world cycling champions, including Kuznetsova’s mother, and her brother won a silver in cycling in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

The test at last month’s exhibition event was carried out by regional Belgian authorities and was not commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the WTA Tour, or the International Tennis Federation.

Eerdekens said the regional Francophone government of Belgium had no authority to impose sanctions and would leave it up to the sport’s governing bodies.

There never has been a doping offense for a performance-enhancing drug in WTA Tour history. Two players were sanctioned for caffeine, one for cocaine – none since 2002.

“There are a few countries in the world, not many, where the government kind of holds themselves out and says, ‘Regardless of your sport’s anti-doping program, we have the right to test whenever and wherever we want.’ This case highlights the problems with that,” Scott told the AP.

“It just shows you the kind of damage a politician can do whenever they use anti-doping for grandstanding or political use in the home country.”