{"id":67573,"date":"2025-08-14T12:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T12:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67573\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T12:09:12","slug":"australian-player-thomas-fancutt-hit-with-10-month-ban-for-anti-doping-breach-over-vitamin-infusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67573\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian player Thomas Fancutt hit with 10-month ban for anti-doping breach over vitamin infusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A second Australian tennis player in four months has been hit with a lengthy suspension for breaching the sport\u2019s anti-doping rules over intravenous infusion of vitamins.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Fancutt, 30, was provisionally suspended in April but the sport\u2019s anti-doping watchdog, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), hit the doubles player with a 10-month ban on Tuesday \u2013 a suspension which ends in January before the Australian Open.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fancutt throws his racquet during a match against Mirza Basic in Bendigo in 2022.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f70654d7f6af9b3abfe20c453e2a522d2924c3f7.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Fancutt throws his racquet during a match against Mirza Basic in Bendigo in 2022.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Fancutt has admitted to using a \u201cprohibited method\u201d as defined by the ITIA\u2019s anti-doping program. Athletes are permitted to use IV drips, but only when fluid is below a certain threshold and within a specific time period.<\/p>\n<p>Fancutt\u2019s case follows that of Australia\u2019s doubles champion Max Purcell who was hit with an 18-month ban in April for breaching the anti-doping rules after ITIA investigators found messages on his mobile phone in which he discussed ways he could justify receiving intravenous infusions.<\/p>\n<p>Two-time grand slam doubles champion Purcell was also found by the ITIA to have used a \u201cprohibited method\u201d \u2013 by receiving infusions of more than 500 millilitres in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p>In Fancutt\u2019s case, the ITIA said the player had received an intravenous infusion over the accepted limit in December, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ITIA sent the player a notice of a potential anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) on 7 March 2025,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn 19 March 2025, the player requested to enter into a voluntary provisional suspension, which came into effect immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing a full investigation by the ITIA, which included evidence gathering and interviews with the player, Fancutt admitted to the breach, and the ITIA accepted that the breach was not intentional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A second Australian tennis player in four months has been hit with a lengthy suspension for breaching the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-67573","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\/67573","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=67573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}