(Reuters) – Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska has been temporarily suspended after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found banned substances in a urine sample outside a competition, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said ) Thursday.
Yastremska, 20, 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.
“Yastremska was charged with Rule against Doping under Article 2.1 of the Program (Presence of Prohibited Material in Player Example) and was temporarily suspended with effect from January 7,” the ITF said.
“Yastremska had (and has retained) the right to appeal to the Chair of the Independent Tribunal who was summoned to hear her case as to why the Temporary Suspension should not be enforced, but has opted out without the right used that so far. “
Yastremska, 29, has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and believes the test was positive as a result of a “pollution incident”.
“I am shocked and horrified, especially since it is two weeks before this test … I took a negative test at a WTA event in Linz. After this last competition of the year, I stopped resting before the start of the new season, ”she said in a statement.
“Very little mesterolone metabolite was found in my urine. With low density and with my negative test two weeks earlier, I received scientific advice that the result is consistent with a type of contamination event. ”
The ITF did not say when Yastremska’s hearing would take place, putting her participation in the Australian Open 8-21 in February.
Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Edited by Ken Ferris