The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has suspended 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova for four years for refusing to take an anti-doping test in December of 2025 according to D’Arcy Maine of ESPN on Monday. Vondrousova said the ITIA agent allegedly came to her home late at night, and did not properly identify herself. The ITIA reviewed Vondrousova’s claim and argued she did not provide “compelling justification” for the test refusal.
Vondrousova also argues that the ITIA agent came outside the scheduled time period. However, the ITIA argues that there is no selected time period, and that an agent is able to come by a person’s house at any time of the day, for 365 days of the year.
A two-time grand slam finalist, Vondrousova made the 2019 French Open final and the 2023 Wimbledon final. At the 2019 French Open final, Vondrousova lost to Australian star Ashleigh Barty, 6-1, 6-3. At the 2023 Wimbledon final, Vondrousova beat Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-4. When Vondrousova won Wimbledon, she made tennis history by becoming the first unseeded women’s Wimbledon champion of all-time. At the time, she was ranked 42nd.
It is interesting that Vondrousova is getting support from fellow players. They include Australia’s own Ajla Tomljanovic amd Great Britain’s Fran Jones according to Tumaini Carayol of The Guardian.
What confuses me from the incident is that Vondrousova signed a release form saying that she was aware she was refusing to provide a sample and that there could be consequences for the refusal. It would be interesting to see if the ITIA logo was on the form. It is also being reported by Carayol that the agent came by Vondrousova’s home at 8pm, which does not appear to be all that late.
