American tennis player Varvara Lepchenko, who was among the world’s top 20, has been suspended for four years for doping, the international tennis federation announced on Friday.
The 35-year-old tested positive at the WTA tournament in Budapest last year at the“adrafinil and/or modafinil metabolite“said the ITF, a stimulant banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).”The independent tribunal imposed a four-year ban, which began on August 19, 2021, when Ms Lepchenko was provisionally suspended“, the ITF said in a statement.
AFP specifies that this is the second time that the player, of Uzbek origin, has been punished for doping. She had tested positive in 2016 for meldonium, a substance whose use also prompted the suspension of Russian player Maria Sharapova. But the ITF clarified that this second case was considered a first violation “because she (Lepchenko) was not at fault in the first case“.
If in theory the sanction is heavy, in practice, it will not affect the player so much, whose end of career was imminent at 35 years old. During his career, Varvara Lepchenko has never passed the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament in singles. In doubles, however, she once reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2013. Since 2001, she has won just over $5 million on the tennis courts.
Scandals have been piling up in the world of tennis in recent years. Between the mysterious disappearance of Peng Shuai and the Novak Djokovic case in early 2022, attention is increasingly focused on what is happening outside the courts.
Doping in the world of tennis is not new. Several famous players, including Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet had been worried for a time, before being cleared. Maria Sharapova had been less fortunate and had been suspended for 2 years in 2016, after being tested positive for meldonium.