Italy's Errani denies using banned substance

Italy's Sara Errani, who was suspended by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for two months after she failed a drug test, said she never took any banned substances.

"I never took, in my life and during my career, any prohibited substance," the 30-year-old Errani said in a statement posted in her Twitter account on Monday, reports Efe.

A urine sample that Errani provided on February 16 and was tested in Montreal contained letrozole, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited substances list, the ITF said in a statement.

"An Independent Tribunal ... has found that Sara Errani committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme and, as a consequence, has disqualified the affected results and imposed a period of ineligibility of two months, commencing on 3 August 2017," the ITF said.

Errani, for her part, said letrozole "is present in Femara, a medicine my mother has been using daily since 2012 for therapeutic purpose, further to a surgery for breast cancer, and therefore is present in the house where I am currently living."

The tennis player said she never took any letrozole and suspected that "accidental food contamination occurred at some stage in the house".

"I feel very frustrated. I had not done anything wrong," Errani said.

The ITF said Errani's results, points and prize money earned between February 16, when she provided the positive sample, and June 7, when she passed another drug test, would be disqualified.

Errani, the World No.98, made it to the semis at the Rabat International, her best singles result this season.

The Italian WTA Tour veteran reached her only Grand Slam final at the 2012 French Open.

--IANS

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