The Czech Marketa Vondrousova, crowned at Wimbledon in 2023, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) her four-year suspension for refusing a doping test at the end of 2025, the court announced on Monday.
“The CAS confirms an appeal” filed by the former 6th player in the world against the sanction pronounced at the end of June by the International Agency for the Integrity of Tennis (Itia), a spokesperson for the supreme court of the sporting world told AFP.
The hearing has not yet been scheduled, but it generally takes place in the months following the appeal – behind closed doors, unless Vondrousova requests publicity, an extremely rare case -, before a sentence itself is pronounced several months later.
An unexpected check
Itia explained at the end of June that it had applied the same sanction as in the event of a positive anti-doping sample, since the Czech player had refused to submit to an unannounced test at her home, on December 3, 2025 around 8:00 p.m.
Vondrousova justified her refusal to deliver the sample requested by an agent by citing stress and mental health problems, as well as fears for her safety. In April, she claimed that the controller knocked on her door “late in the evening, without clearly identifying herself or following protocol.”
Suspended by Itia until June 21, 2030, the Czech left-hander has not played on the WTA circuit since January. During her last appearance at a Grand Slam tournament, at the US Open in August 2025, she qualified for the quarter-finals, but was unable to play them due to an injury.
Vondrousova caused a sensation in 2023 with her coronation at Wimbledon against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, being ranked 42nd at the start of the tournament. She has other highlights to her credit, such as a final at Roland Garros in 2019 lost against Australian Ashleigh Barty, and a silver medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
