Dayana Yastremska flew to Australian Open despite the doping suspension

Dayana Yastremska was born in Odessa, in Ukraine, on May 15th, 2000. Turning pro in 2016, she reached her first WTA major circuit final two years later in Hong Kong, where she faced and defeated China's Wang Qiang for 6-2 6-1.

In February 2019, the Ukrainian player won her second title in Hua Hin, Thailand, this time by beating Ajla Tomljanovic in the third set tiebreak. Her latest success came in May of the same year, when she took the title in Strasbourg against home player Caroline Garcia with a score of 6-4 5-7 7-6

A year ago she played her last final on the WTA Tour, when she lost in two sets in Adelaide to Australian Ashleigh Barty before the pandemic outbreak hit the world. Today, Dayana is ranked in the 29th position in the WTA rankings, having also been 21st twelve months ago. Her best result in a Grand Slam event came at Wimbledon back in 2019, when she reached the fourth round before being defeated by Shuai Zhang.

The suspension for doping and the arrival in Australia

A few days ago, the young Ukrainian was suspended for doping following the result of a recent urine analysis. In spite of this, Yastremska regularly flew to Australia for the first Grand Slam of the year. The reason? The reporter Jannik Schneider revealed this, among others, referring to a statement from the ITF and the provisions contained in the International Anti-Doping Regulations.

We can read in the ITF statement: "Dayana Yastremska is provisionally suspended, but she always have the right to appeal for her suspension to be lifted. In the event that this happens and is successful, she will be able to play right away."

In other words, no one can stop Yastremska from training in Australia during these weeks, in the hope that she will be found innocent and she can then return to compete with immediate effect. Things are still unfolding during these days, so news will come before the beginning of the Australian Open. The 20-years-old never made it through the third round in Melbourne, played in 2019 and lost to Serena Williams. To date there are three Ukrainian players in the world top 100: Elina Svitolina (5th), Yastremska (29th) and rising star Marta Kostyuk (99th).

ITF answered me similar to @tumcarayol - Yastremska "still has the right to apply to have her provisional susp lifted. In the event that she does so and that application is successful, then she would be eligible to play with immediate effect." So far: 8.3.4 of Anti-Doping Prog👇 pic.twitter.com/ywIqA9kNFf

— Jannik Schneider (@schnejan) January 14, 2021

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3qCxzsN