From Swiatek to Sharapova: Tennis players who faced doping suspensions

After Jannik Sinner was suspended for three months after testing positive in a doping test, it inevitably brings to mind cases of other players who have been suspended for the same reason, such as Iga Swiatek, Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova, Viktor Troicki, Martina Hingis, and Mariano Puerta.

In Swiatek's case, her suspension lasted only one month. This was due to the Polish player testing positive for trimetazidine, which was determined to be a contamination from a medication she was taking to treat sleep problems at the time. As a result, this doping case was considered unintentional.

The great Romanian tennis player saw her career put on hold in 2022 when she was sanctioned with a four-year ban from the courts after testing positive for roxadustat, a molecule that stimulates red blood cell production, at that year's US Open. However, in 2024, her punishment was reduced to nine months after the Court of Arbitration for Sport determined that the doping was due to contamination.

In 2016, the Russian tennis player tested positive for meldonium, a substance that increases vascularization of the heart muscle. Initially, this resulted in a two-year suspension, but the CAS reduced the ban to 15 months after considering that the substance had been consumed accidentally. Upon her return, the former world No. 1 never managed to regain her level and eventually retired in 2020.

In 2013, the Serbian tennis player was suspended for 18 months by the ITF after refusing to undergo a blood test at the Monte Carlo Masters. Troicki claimed that he did not feel well, which is why he only provided a urine sample.

He then appealed to the CAS, which reduced his ban to one year, considering that the original suspension was too severe for the case.

The former Swiss tennis player received one of the harshest penalties in tennis history—a two-year suspension. At Wimbledon 2007, Hingis tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine. Unlike other cases, Martina did not receive any reduction in her suspension.

In the case of the Argentine player, his sanction was due to failing two anti-doping tests. The first occurred in 2003, when he was suspended for nine months after testing positive for clenbuterol, an anabolic steroid. The original sanction was two years out of competition, but Puerta managed to justify the consumption of the substance as treatment for an acute asthma attack.

However, two years later, Puerta failed another anti-doping test, this time in the 2005 Roland Garros final, where he faced a young Rafael Nadal. On that occasion, he claimed to have unintentionally ingested Effortil from his girlfriend’s glass, a medication she used for menstrual pain. However, years later, Puerta himself admitted that this was a lie. He was initially suspended for eight years but managed to reduce the ban to two with the supposed story that he had drunk the substance from his girlfriend’s glass.