After being suspected of skipping three drug tests in a 12-month span, American tennis player Jenson Brooksby accepted a temporary ban from the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Wednesday, he told The Associated Press. He intends to pursue arbitration with the ITIA, which is in charge of handling tennis doping issues.
If an athlete receives three “whereabouts failures” in the course of a year, they may be punished under anti-doping regulations without ever receiving a positive test. “I’ve never failed a drug test, so taking the interim suspension is the wisest move we can make right now. I’ve never used any illegal drugs.” Brooksby said in a telephone interview.
An arbitration hearing for Brooksby is anticipated to take place in the coming months, according to Howard Jacobs, the attorney for Brooksby. Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam winner, is another client of Jacobs’. She recently had a hearing on charges the ITIA made against her after she failed a drug test at the U.S. Open last year.
Brooksby, who once held the No. 33 position, is now rated No. 101 after missing nearly six months of competition due to the necessity for two procedures to realign his dislocated wrist tendons: one on his left arm in March and one on his right in May.
A statement from Jenson Brooksby mentions it’s been “frustrating”
One of the allegedly missing tests, according to Jenson Brooksby, took place in June 2022, two days prior to the start of an ATP event in the Netherlands. He claims that at the time and place that he had promised to be there, as well as at the official tournament hotel, he was present. In the AP interview, Brooksby described the situation as “frustrating.” “I’m eager to present them with the full body of evidence.”
At a significant competition, Brooksby’s greatest performance was reaching the fourth round of the 2021 US Open. He faced Novak Djokovic at that time and defeated him in straight sets, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
He hasn’t competed on the circuit since January when he advanced through eventual semifinalist Tommy Paul in the third round of the Australian Open after defeating three-time Grand Slam runner-up Casper Ruud in the second round. After the competition, Brooksby and longtime coach Joseph Gilbert had a falling out.
Narasimhan reported that Brooksby got a letter from the ITIA on June 7 alerting him to a possible regulation infringement. Narasimhan added, “We anticipated all along that we would likely have to go to arbitration to get this rejected. In the past five years, Brooksby hasn’t had a soda. That is how clean Jenson Brooksby is.”
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