Ukraine tennis player Dayana Yastremska appears certain to miss next month’s Australian Open after her appeal against a provisional doping suspension was rejected.

Yastremska, ranked 29 in the world, sparked controversy when she was filmed on a Tennis Australia charter flight to Melbourne for the Australian Open, despite testing positive to a banned substance in an out-of-competition sample.

The International Tennis Federation released a statement on Sunday saying an independent tribunal had denied the 20-year-old’s application to have her provisional suspension lifted.

It noted that decision was subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by Yastremska, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Ukraine’s anti-doping agency.

Yastremska, who has been in hotel quarantine since arriving in Melbourne earlier this month, provided her sample in November.

A WADA lab in Montreal found the presence of mesterolone metabolite, an anabolic agent on its prohibited list.

She has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, saying she believes the positive test is the result of a “contamination event”, and has vowed to clear her name.

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“I’m astonished and under shock, particularly given that two weeks prior to this test … I tested negative at the WTA event in Linz,” Yastremska said in a statement earlier this month.

“After this last tournament of the year, I stopped practising to rest prior to the start of the new season.

“Only a very low concentration of mesterolone metabolite was detected in my urine. Given that low concentration and given my negative test two weeks earlier, I have received scientific advice that the result is consistent with some form of contamination event.”

Yastremska has won three WTA Tour titles and reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2019. She reached a career-high ranking of 21 in January last year.

She spent two weeks in self-isolation in Dubai after testing positive for COVID-19.

AAP



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