Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova has been handed a four-year suspension from tennis after refusing to submit to an out-of-competition anti-doping test, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed on Monday.
The 26-year-old Czech player was found guilty of violating anti-doping regulations after denying a doping control officer access to her residence during a scheduled test in December 2025.
Following an independent tribunal hearing, Vondrousova was ruled to have failed to provide a valid justification for her refusal and will remain suspended until June 21, 2030.
The ban deals a major blow to the career of the former world No. 6, who captured the Wimbledon women’s singles title in 2023 to become the first unseeded champion in the tournament’s history.
Despite the ruling, Vondrousova strongly denied any involvement with performance-enhancing drugs and maintained that she has always competed clean.
“I have never doped, I have never had a positive test,”
Vondrousova said in a statement. “Throughout my entire career I have undergone countless anti-doping controls and have always stepped on to the court with a clear conscience.”
The Czech star argued that she felt unsafe when the testing officer arrived at her home, claiming that proper identification procedures were not followed. She also pointed to mental health struggles and heightened stress levels at the time as factors that affected her judgment.
However, the tribunal dismissed those explanations, concluding that they did not meet the threshold required to justify refusing a mandatory doping control.
ITIA chief executive Karen Moorhouse defended the decision, stressing that the integrity of anti-doping programmes depends on athletes complying with testing requirements.
“You can’t have an anti-doping system where a player is in a better position by refusing a test than they would be by taking a test and testing positive,” Moorhouse said.
The ruling has sparked discussion within the tennis community, particularly because several players who returned positive tests for banned substances in recent years received shorter suspensions.
Under the World Anti-Doping Code, however, refusing, evading or obstructing a doping test typically carries a standard four-year ban unless exceptional circumstances can be established.
Vondrousova, who also finished runner-up at the French Open and won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, has not played competitively since January and has fallen to No. 122 in the world rankings.
She retains the right to appeal the verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but unless the sanction is overturned, the suspension will sideline her during what are widely considered the prime years of her professional career.
