The world's top tennis players are divided over the decision to start blood testing for EPO at next week's Australian Open.

While most players, including former world number one Andre Agassi, say they are in favour of the idea, not everyone agrees. Russian Marat Safin said he is stridently opposed to the idea, arguing that doping is not a major problem in tennis.

"I'm not supporting that," he said. "I said to the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) that I don't think it's correct, but they didn't really listen.

"If they want to bring the hospital to the Australian Open...they're gonna have a big problem with that."

Safin said he thought the existing urine tests, which can detect most performance-enhancing substances but not EPO, are satisfactory and players should not have to be subjected to needles to extract blood.

"I think (testing for) EPO is way too much," Safin said.

"Not every person can take it, some people get dizzy afterwards.

"It's like something from another world, I'm not agreeing with that."

The International Tennis Federation announced last month that it would proceed with blood testing at the Australian Open after a spate of highly-publicised doping busts.

In the past two years, Argentine players Juan Ignacio Chela and Guillermo Coria were handed stiff penalties following positive dope tests.

Chela was suspended for three months after testing positive for the banned steroid methyltestosterone. Coria tested positive for nandrolone and was banned from the ATP tour for seven months.

In 1998, Petr Korda was banned for a year after testing positive for steroids during Wimbledon. He had won the Australian Open earlier that year.

Agassi, one of the most respected players in the game, said he fully supported the introduction of blood tests.

"For the sake of the game, any drug that gives somebody an advantage...nobody should have to worry about that sort of thing," he said.

"Anything that we can do to get rid of that should be done.

"There's a lot of great athletes out there proving themselves in a very straightforward way. You have to make sure nobody can question that."