Wayne Odesnik, Tennis Pariah, Returns to Wimbledon and Loses Wednesday, perhaps the most polarizing figure on the ATP Tour walked onto Court 9 at the All England Club, and no one seemed to notice. There were no hoots or catcalls for Wayne Odesnik, no cheers or applause, either, for the man Andy Roddick once suggested should be barred from the sport. Cheat, snitch, disgrace - Odesnik, a 26-year-old American, has been called them all over the last two years, for a transgression that cast him as a pariah within the tennis community. In March 2010, he pleaded guilty in an Australian court to importing human growth hormone, prompting the International Tennis Federation to suspend him for two years. That ban, which stripped Odesnik of his ranking, was reduced by a year in December 2010 because he cooperated with the I.T.F."s antidoping program. One way that suspensions can be reduced is if a player provides "substantial" assistance in exposing other wrongdoing. Because the I.T.F. never revealed the nature of its agreement with Odesnik, a perception emerged, fairly or not, that he tattled on some of his peers. He emphatically defended himself to a small group of reporters Wednesday, telling them to write down his words in capital letters. "I would 100 percent never say anything bad about a player or do something that I was a spy or something of that sort," said Odesnik, who never failed a drug test. That is utterly 100 percent false. Odesnik spent much of the last 18 months slogging through tennis's minor league outposts, accruing points in places like Tallahassee, Fla.; Barranquilla, Colombia; and Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Brazil, to raise his ranking to No. 135 heading into Wimbledon. Granted a berth as a lucky loser for his first main draw in a Grand Slam tournament in 29 months, Odesnik lost in five sets to Bjorn Phau of Germany, 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, negating a second-round confrontation with Roddick. Like Odesnik, Roddick needed a second day to complete a match suspended Tuesday by rain. He beat Jamie Baker of Britain, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 7-5. To this point, Odesnik has done a fine job of reviving his career. Rebuilding his reputation will be significantly harder. "I don't think the players will forget if somebody gets caught," Phau said. It's not that I hate him - it's more that I have nothing to do with him, and I don't want to have something to do with him. Phau said a few players told him before the match that they hoped he won. Jesse Levine, an American who has played Odesnik several times, said he held no grudges against Odesnik, but that "a lot of people in the locker room hold some hostility toward him." When Sam Querrey faced Odesnik in Odesnik's first tournament after pleading guilty two years ago, Querrey said he refused to lose to Odesnik. "You heard all this chirping in the locker room," Querrey said earlier this week. I think when guys have that tag on them, I guess you could say, it's a little tougher to be kind of friendly. It's not like he's the most likable guy in the locker room. Odesnik characterized his interaction with fellow players as cordial. He said that he was hardly the social type; for instance, he did not eat dinner with his peers. He never breached the inner circle of American players, that cadre of Roddick, Mardy Fish, John Isner and James Blake. Interviews with several players revealed two primary reasons for their icy feelings toward Odesnik: the original doping violation and his commuted sentence. Jarkko Nieminen of Finland agreed with Phau, who said that Odesnik should have been required to serve his two-year suspension in full. "It's basically like somebody does something and goes to jail for one year, and after that year he becomes a free man," Nieminen said. Obviously, I would not do something that would put me in that position. Odesnik grew antagonistic when asked Wednesday why and how his suitcase contained eight vials of H.G.H. when it was searched at the Brisbane airport in January 2010. "Obviously you, in the last two years, you didn't read the papers," he said, adding, "I don't need to get into that now." An article in USA Today from April 2011, citing court documents and proceedings, reported that Odesnik bought the substance on the Internet. In explaining his arrangement with the I.T.F., Odesnik stressed Wednesday that he supplied medical information that satisfied its concerns. "I never tried to lie to them," he said. I was completely honest with them, and therefore they understood the reasoning why I had it. Even so, it is unlikely that his peers ever will. Minutes after Phau aced him on match point, Odesnik was escorted through the crowd, which parted as he passed Courts 4 and 5, climbed a wide stairway and opened a door to the players" clubhouse. He walked in alone.