{"id":68981,"date":"2025-08-14T12:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T12:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68981\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T12:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T12:24:09","slug":"aussie-tennis-player-slapped-with-hefty-ban-after-admitting-to-doping-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68981\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie tennis player slapped with hefty ban after admitting to doping breach"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ED CARRUTHERS, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR, AUSTRALIA<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 08:14 EDT, 14 August 2025 | Updated: 08:23 EDT, 14 August 2025 <\/p>\n

Thomas Fancutt has become the second Australian player to receive a ban for doping breaches this year, after he admitted to contravening the sport’s rules on receiving intravenous infusions.<\/p>\n

Fellow Aussie Max Purcell, who reached a career high ATP Tour singles ranking of 40 back in 2023, accepted an 18-month suspension in April after he admitted to a breach of the International Tennis Integrity Agency\u2019s (ITIA) doping<\/a> rules.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the ITIA confirmed that Fancutt had also accepted a 10-month suspension.<\/p>\n

He had admitted to a breach of Article 2.2 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) relating to the use of a \u2018prohibited method\u2019.<\/p>\n

Purcell had admitted to contravening the same provision back in December before being handed his suspension in April. He received two infusions that were over 500ml back in 2023. His cooperation had resulted in a reduction in his sanction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he missed the Australian Open<\/a> in January after entering a voluntary provisional suspension.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas <\/p>\n

Thomas Fancutt (pictured) has become the second Aussie this year to receieve a suspension for a breach of the ITIA’s doping rules\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fancutt <\/p>\n

Fancutt says he ‘unknowingly violated an anti-doping rule’ relating to administering intravenous fluids\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fancutt, meanwhile, had contravened the regulation after he received\u00a0 an intravenous infusion that was deemed to be over the limit permitted by the TADP in December 2025.<\/p>\n

Under the governing body\u2019s rules, players are only allowed to receive a 100ml infusion across a 12-hour period.<\/p>\n

Fancutt\u2019s suspension will expire before the 2026 Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Following an investigation, the ITIA explained that Fancutt had admitted to the breach, and had informed the governing body that it was not intentional.<\/p>\n

\u2018The ITIA sent the player a notice of a potential Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) on 7 March 2025. On 19 March 2025, the player requested to enter into a voluntary provisional suspension, which came into effect immediately,\u2019 the ITIA\u2019s statement read.<\/p>\n

\u2018Following 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

\u2018In determining sanction, the ITIA considered relevant precedents across all WADC-compliant sports, in addition to the player\u2019s early admission and full co-operation.\u2019<\/p>\n

His time served under the voluntary provisional suspension will be credited back to his ban.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The tennis star took to Instagram in March to admit his ‘devastation’ over the findings, adding that he had been ‘fully cooperating with the ITIA’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It comes after fellow Australian Max Purcell (pictured) was also handed an 18-month suspension after he admitted to doping breaches after also receiving an intravenous infusion of over 100ml\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During his suspension, the ITIA states that he is banned from playing in, coaching or attending any tennis event authorised by the ATP Tour, WTA Tour or Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n

In March, the 30-year-old Aussie, who reached a career-high singles ranking of 107, spoke of his \u2018devastation\u2019 following the news.<\/p>\n

‘At the end of my 2024 season, I unknowingly violated an anti-doping rule by receiving a 500ml IV infusion to combat severe fatigue,’ he wrote in an Instagram story earlier this year.<\/p>\n

‘The contents of the infusion were solely vitamin B, vitamin C and magnesium.<\/p>\n

‘The IV infusion amount, however, exceeded 100mls which regardless of its contents, is prohibited under anti-doping regulations, something I was completely unaware of at the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Aussie tennis player slapped with hefty ban after admitting to doping breach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By ED CARRUTHERS, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 08:14 EDT, 14 August 2025 | Updated: 08:23 EDT, 14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,2093,457,82,593],"class_list":["post-68981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dailymail","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}