Varvara Lepchenko suspended four years for doping

The action on the tennis court in Indian Wells and Miami is not the only news this month when it comes to American tennis. According to Tennis World on Tuesday, it was announced that American tennis player Varvara Lepchenko has been suspended four years for taking a banned stimulant.

Lepchenko, who represents the United States even though she was born in Uzbekistan, initially tested positive for the banned substances of adrafinil and modafinil, after the 2021 Budapest Grand Prix in Hungary. According to the Associated Press, Lepchenko failed to prove that her use of at least one of the two substances was unintentional, and she intends to appeal the decision through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

At the Budapest Grand Prix in July, Lepchenko lost in the first round to Ana Bogdan of Romania, 6-4, 7-5. At the time, Bogdan was the fifth seed.

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Lepchenko is the second tennis player in the last two years to receive a suspension by the WTA for taking a banned substance. In 2021, Dayana Yastremska of the Ukraine was suspended six months for taking the drug mesterolone. Yastremska was only given a six month suspension because it was determined through an independent tribunal hearing that Yastremska was not at fault for putting the drug into her system.

Lepchenko is currently ranked 135th in the world. In 2012, she was ranked as high as 19th. That same year she represented the United States in women’s tennis at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Lepchenko reached the second round before losing 6-3, 7-5, to Julia Gorges of Germany.

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