(Reuters) – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has denied Dayana Yastremska’s bid to lift a temporary doping ban imposed on her by the World Anti-Doping Organization (WADA).
Ukraine’s global number 29 Yastremska was temporarily shut down on January 7 after WADA found a banned substance in a urine sample outside a competition.
The 20-year-old provided the sample in November and a WADA laboratory in Montreal found the presence of the metabolite mesterolone, an anabolic agent on its Prohibited List.
“A request from Dayana Yastremska for the temporary suspension imposed on her on 7 January under Article 8.3.1 (c) of the Anti-Doping Tennis Program 2020 was rejected by the Chair of the Independent Tribunal convened to adjourn her case. The ITF said in a statement on Saturday.
Yastremska denied the use of performance-enhancing drugs and said the positive test was the result of a “pollution incident”.
She had traveled to Melbourne for the Australian Open, which was scheduled to start on February 8., after she applied until her temporary ban was lifted.
The ITF said its latest decision is subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport by Yastremska, WADA and the National Center against the Dop of Ukraine.
Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Edited by William Mallard