Elena Dementieva and Nathalie Dechy say they are the real victims of the doping saga in which Russia's [Images] US Open [Images] champion Svetlana Kuznetsova [Images] was wrongly accused of committing an offence.

Dementieva and Dechy were dragged into the scandal after Belgian regional sports minister Claude Eerdekens said one of the three women had tested positive at an exhibition tournament in Charleroi last month.

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Eerdekens later announced that Kuznetsova was the player involved and had tested positive for ephedrine, a stimulant commonly found in cough and cold remedies.

However, the WTA cleared her of any doping offence saying ephedrine was not on the list of prohibited drugs if taken in out-of-competition events such as last month's charity event.

The governing body of women's tennis the WTA demanded an apology and Dementieva and Dechy said they were both furious they had been implicated in the scandal.

"How can you be happy when you see your face on the cover page and talking about doping?" Dechy told a news conference at the Australian Open [Images] on Friday.

"I'm really upset about it and I think the Belgium government did some really bad job about this."

"I think we deserve an apology from the guy. I mean, you cannot say anything like this -- you cannot say some stuff like this, saying it's one of these girls. I mean, this is terrible."

VERY UPSET

Dementieva said: "You have no idea what I have been through all these days. It's been too hard on me.

"The WTA are trying to handle this problem by saying there is three victims, but I see only two victims in this story -- me and Nathalie Dechy, who really have nothing to do with this."

"To be honest with you, I don't feel like I want to talk to Sveta [Kuznetsova] at all. I'm just very upset with the way everything has happened. I don't feel like I want to talk to her, that's it," Dementieva said.

Other leading players were also quick to show their support for the three women.

Briton Greg Rusedski [Images], who was at the centre of a doping scandal last year before being cleared of any wrongdoing, said he sympathised with the three women and blamed the Belgian official.

"It should never be made public, these sorts of things, until all the facts are out, until there's a tribunal, until everything goes through," he said.

"I just wish he just would have kept his mouth shut and dealt with it properly," Rusedski said.

Australia's [Images] Alicia Molik [Images], who is playing doubles with Kuznetsova, said she was distraught when she saw the newspaper headlines.

"It's very important to remember that it's a sensitive issue and it's important to realise that, you know, players do have feelings," she said.

"I don't think it's very fair on any single one of those three girls that are featured on the cover of the papers.

"In fact I was down at my local convenience store this morning and I saw the papers and I read the front page.

"I bought every single newspaper in the convenience store and threw them away. That's how strongly I felt about the issue," Molik said.

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