Russian teenager banned from tennis for nine months following anti-doping breach A tennis player at the centre of a major doping investigation has been banned for nine months for breaching anti-doping rules. Ivan Ljubicic, a 21-year-old Slovak, missed his first tournament since the start of his suspension last month because of the incident at the end of last year. Mr Ljubicic, who received a three-year ban from his sport for “serious rule violation” at the ATP World Tour Finals in December, was serving a ban from competitions involving ATP, WTA and Junior Grand Slam events. The International Tennis Federation, which oversees competition in the world’s top 10 tennis tournaments, said it was “deeply concerned” about the matter. It said Mr Ljubicic was “placed on a 12-month doping ban from the 2017 ATP Championships”. The ban is for all ATP World Tour events from April 18 and carries a 15% suspension from ATP rankings, 20% from WTA events, 10% from juniors and 15% from exhibitions. Mr Ljubicic, who plays for the Slovakian men’s tennis team, said in a statement, “It did not take long for this matter to get resolved. The decision to have a meeting with the authorities has been finalised.” A statement from the I.T.F said that Mr Ljubicic had also been banned for nine months after testing positive for a “performance-enhancing substance” at the Australian Open last month. The test was confirmed to be positive for “dihydro-beta-erythroidine (DHEA), a metabolite of DHEA-S.” A dihydrotestosterone metabolite “can be detected in the urine of athletes who ingest anabolic steroids or other prohibited substances” and can be from up to four weeks old. Advertisement
Ivan Ljubicic, a 21-year-old Slovak, missed his first tournament since the start of his suspension last month because of the incident at the end of last year.
Mr Ljubicic, who received a three-year ban from his sport for’serious rule violation’ at the ATP World Tour Finals in December, was serving a ban from competitions involving ATP, WTA and Junior Grand Slam events.
The International Tennis Federation, which oversees competition in the world’s top 10 tennis tournaments, said it was “deeply concerned” about the matter