London – Former top-20 tennis player Varvara Lepchenko has been banned for four years for a doping violation.
The ban for the 35-year-old American will begin retroactively from 19 August 2021, the tennis world governing body ITF announced. The banned substance was found in a sample from the WTA tournament in Budapest last summer.
Accordingly, Lepchenko, who comes from Uzbekistan, would not be eligible to play again until August 2025 at the age of 39. However, the lawyers of the 28th-ranked player in the world announced that they would appeal the decision to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, as the AP news agency reported.