Slam runner-up given drug ban ...but blames mum’s cancer pills
TENNIS was hit with its most significant doping case since Maria Sharapova after former French Open finalist Sara Errani was banned for two months for failing a drugs test.
the 30-year-old Italian, once ranked No 5 in the world but now down at 98, tested positive for letrozole earlier this year.
Letrozole is used as a treatment for breast cancer, but is on the banned list due to its qualities as a masking agent.
Errani was subjected to an outof-competition test at her home in February while staying with her parents. the Italian said she accidentally took her mother’s medication for breast cancer. But she accepted the charge of violating anti-doping rules in April. A panel ruled that Errani’s fault was ‘at the lower end of the scale’ but she was still banned for two months, backdated to August 3.
Errani said she believed one of her mother’s tablets from a blister pack kept near the kitchen worktop accidentally fell and contaminated some soup and tortellini she was preparing.
Following their daughter’s failed test, her parents even car- ried out their own experiment to discover whether a tablet could have dissolved into broth, and found that it did.
the panel said the evidence was inconclusive in respect of the frequency, quantity and circumstances of the ingestion of letrozole, but agreed that there was ‘no significant fault or negligence’ on her part.
Errani said: ‘I am extremely disappointed but also at peace with my conscience and aware I haven’t done anything wrong.’
In June Britain’s Dan Evans admitted testing positive to cocaine, with a hearing due later this summer.
Errani’s ban is the highestprofile episode in tennis since that of Sharapova who, banned for 15 months on appeal after testing positive for meldonium, returned in April at Stuttgart. But after reaching the semifinal there, her comeback has stalled due to injuries, the latest of which sees her miss this week’s Rogers Cup in Canada. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka are among other stars missing.