Nicolas Jarry and Robert Farah are to fight suspensions handed out after testing positive for banned substances.
It has been a crazy and dark last couple of hours for tennis with the ITF releasing a statement first about Nicolas Jarry testing positive for a banned substance at the Davis Cup Finals in November.
The world number 78 tested positive for a Ligandrol metabolite and stanozolol metabolite, which has seen him provisionally suspended.
Despite competing at the qualifying event in Adelaide this weekend, Jarry will now miss the Australian Open in an attempt to clear his name.
In a statement, Jarry claimed it was one of the most toughest moments of his career and claims a cross contamination of Brazilian vitamins is the reason, “This is one of the most toughest moments that I have had to face in my life,” Jarry said on Instagram.
“I want to clarify that I have never intentionally or consciously taken any prohibited substance in my career as a tennis player and, in fact, I completely oppose doping. Therefore, these next days and weeks I will devote all my time and push to find out where these substances come from, so that my legal team and I can fully clarify this situation.
“The news has been an absolute surprise to me and my loved ones, and what I want, in addition to demonstrating my innocence (of which I have no doubt about it), is to use in the future what is happening to me as an example for all young athletes, so that cases like this never happen again.
“I say this because it seems a case of cross contamination of multivitamins made in Brazil, which my doctor recommended me to take, since they had the guarantee of not carrying prohibited substances. My legal team and I will work very hard to prove my innocence and for this I have offered my full cooperation to the International Tennis Federation (ITF).”
While Jarry works to fight his case, another player who will look to recover his reputation is doubles world number one Robert Farah.
24 hours ago, the Wimbledon and US Open doubles champion had withdrawn from the Australian Open due to personal reasons but we now know he won’t be in Melbourne because of a failed drugs test in October.
In a statement on Twitter, Farah explained that he was caught for a drug called Boldenone, which is commonly found in contaminated meat in Colombia, “As the Colombian Olympic Committee stated in 2018, this substance is frequently found in Colombian meat and can affect the results of the tests to athletes,” Farah said on Twitter.
— dommy novvy (@domanov77) January 14, 2020
“With my team, and a group of advisers, we are enquiring about the steps to follow in the process. We intend to show that I have never used any product that threatens fair play and the ethics that characterize sport and especially tennis, an activity that I love and to which I owe my happiest moments.”
Today’s news signifies a dark day in tennis as a world number one being caught for banned substances shows how deeply the ITF are willing to go in their bid to be stricter when dealing with prohibited substances.
As for now both Jarry and Farah are temporarily suspended with both looking to clear their name and prove that both cases were not done on purpose and were purely accidental.
