Wimbledon champion Vondrousova appeals four-year doping ban at CAS
Marketa Vondrousova has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the four-year ban she received for refusing an anti-doping test, the sport's highest appeals body has confirmed.
CAS told BBC Sport it had received Vondrousova's appeal but that no hearing date has been set yet. The 27-year-old Czech was suspended in June after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) charged her with denying a doping control officer entry to her home for an out-of-competition test on 3 December 2025. Her ban is currently due to end on 21 June 2030 (BBC Sport).
Vondrousova is no ordinary tour player. In 2023 she became the first unseeded woman — unseeded meaning she lacked the ranking that protects top players from meeting early — to win the Wimbledon singles title, one of tennis's four Grand Slam majors. A former world number six, she had not competed since January 2026 because of a shoulder injury (Reuters).
The facts of the December evening are contested. Vondrousova said in April that the doping control officer arrived at her home at 20:00 and failed to properly identify themselves or follow protocol, and that she feared for her safety. She said she was at "breaking point after months of physical and mental stress." She signed a refusal form when she stepped outside to walk her dog shortly after the officer's visit.
The tribunal was not persuaded. An independent panel found "no compelling justification" for her refusal and declined to shorten the ban. The ITIA published the full written decision — document SR/098/2026 — in late July, laying out the tribunal's reasoning in full (ITIA).
Under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, the rules that govern testing across the professional game, refusing a test carries the same weight as a failed one. A standard violation brings a four-year suspension. That is the penalty Vondrousova now carries unless CAS reduces or overturns it.
For a player who reached the sport's summit at Wimbledon three years ago, the stakes are stark. A four-year ban would keep her out of competition until she is 31, deep into the years when most players' careers are winding down. Her last match was in January. The appeal is her path back.
No timeline has been set for CAS to hear the case.
