{"id":236395,"date":"2025-10-24T01:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T01:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236395\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T01:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T01:25:07","slug":"argentinian-tennis-star-hit-with-provisional-ban-after-failed-drug-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236395\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentinian tennis star hit with provisional ban after failed drug test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former World No. 55 Facundo Bagnis has been provisionally suspended following a doping accusation during the last edition of the US Open. The sanction was voluntarily accepted by the player under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, administered by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Argentine, currently ranked No. 401 in the ATP Rankings, had previously received a notice of a potential anti-doping rule violation. The notification was issued on 2 October, in accordance with the programme\u2019s articles concerning the presence or use of a prohibited substance without a valid therapeutic use exemption.<\/p>\n

Bagnis provided a doping control sample on 18 August, during the qualifying rounds of the US Open, where he was eliminated in the first round after losing to Australia\u2019s James Duckworth 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n

The sample provided by Bagnis\u2014divided into A and B samples\u2014showed, upon analysis, that the A sample contained hydrochlorothiazide, a prohibited substance listed under the diuretics and masking agents section of the official 2025 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme Prohibited List.<\/p>\n

In its official statement, the ITIA<\/a> explained: \u201cHydrochlorothiazide is considered a specified substance, and Bagnis did not have a valid Therapeutic Use Exemption for its use. Although specified substances do not automatically result in a mandatory provisional suspension, the player chose to accept a voluntary provisional suspension on 18 October 2025. The time served under this suspension will be credited against any future sanction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency also added: \u201cDuring the period of provisional suspension, Bagnis is prohibited from playing in, coaching at, or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the ITIA members (ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Fran\u00e7aise de Tennis, Wimbledon and the USTA) or any national association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the sanction became official, Bagnis released a personal statement to explain the situation and the steps he has taken in response to the case. \u201cI want to tell you that I am going through one of the worst moments of my professional career,\u201d began the Argentine player, winner of 17 Challenger titles and two-time ATP finalist \u2014 Santiago de Chile 2021 (where he lost to Cristian Gar\u00edn) and C\u00f3rdoba 2024 (where he fell to Luciano Darderi).<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently received a notification from the ITIA regarding a doping test carried out during this year\u2019s US Open. The test showed the presence of a substance prohibited by WADA, hydrochlorothiazide (a diuretic), and for that reason, a disciplinary process was initiated. The news took me completely by surprise,\u201d he continued, adding: \u201cFrom the very beginning, I have been fully and transparently cooperating with the ITIA to clarify everything as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding his next steps to clear his name, Bagnis stated: \u201cI also decided to voluntarily accept the provisional suspension in order to dedicate all my attention to this process and to show that I have nothing to hide. I want to make it clear that I would never knowingly take something prohibited, which is why I have full confidence in my innocence and that the truth will come to light, with a fair outcome. Together with my medical toxicologist and legal team, we suspect cross-contamination, and we will soon be able to prove the truth. That is our first objective today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former World No. 55 Facundo Bagnis has been provisionally suspended following a doping accusation during the last edition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-236395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}