Marketa Vondrousova‘s life pretty much turned upside down earlier this year in June. The 2023 Wimbledon champion was handed a four-year ban for refusing to take part in a scheduled anti-doping test. She has received severe criticism since getting suspended and has even been labelled a “doper” by many. Vondrousova has now hit back at the criticism and has also claimed to be innocent.

“I’ve been tested regularly throughout this period, including during my suspension, and all the tests I’ve taken so far have come back negative,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “A new negative test doesn’t, on its own, change my situation. That’s also why it’s so hard to read comments from people calling me a ‘doper,’ or to hear people from the tennis world say I look like I’ve smoked cannabis somewhere.”

But criticism is far from the only challenge that Vondrousova is facing in her daily life. The suspension means that she can’t participate in any official WTA tournament, practice at her local tennis club, or even attend a sanctioned tennis event. This rule forbids her from attending her partner Andrew Paulson’s matches, and Vondrousova finds it hard to watch him from afar.

“My partner is also a professional tennis player. Tennis naturally plays a very important role in both our lives. But because of my suspension, I can’t attend his tournaments to support him, even just as a spectator, without accreditation. My partner is also a professional tennis player. Tennis naturally plays a very important role in both our lives. But because of my suspension, I can’t attend his tournaments to support him, even just as a spectator, without accreditation,” the post further read.

Paulson mostly competes on the Challenger circuit and has been in a relationship with Vondrousova for some time now. She got married to Stepan Simek in 2022, but the pair filed for divorce and got separated in 2024. Vondrousova’s relationship with Paulson appeared to be flourishing, but the four-year ban has certainly made things hard for the couple.

Notably, Vondrousova wasn’t suspended for taking a banned substance, but instead for not following the protocol via which anti-doping tests are operated. The former World No. 6 came under the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s (ITIA) scanner after she broke one of the toughest anti-doping protocols, which is the “whereabouts rule”. It requires players to report their location at all times, so that their sample can be collected for random testing.

But Vondrousova claimed that the person who approached her for the collection of the sample failed to provide the necessary identification. As a result, she didn’t grant him access to her home and also refused to give her sample. But her clarifications didn’t quite hold up, as the ITIA had seen enough. Not only did they ban her for refusing to follow the protocol, but they also defended their actions later on.

ITIA’s CEO defended the organization’s decision to ban Marketa Vondrousova

ITIA’s CEO at the time, Karen Moorhouse, had refuted Vondrousova’s claims. According to her, the sample collector had the credentials and had been properly trained to collect samples without endangering the player’s safety. She also emphasized that the governing body’s top priority is to take care of the players’ health and safety.

“Unpredictable testing is an essential tool to protect clean sport,” said Moorhouse in the official ITIA statement. “The independent tribunal ultimately supported that principle. This case is an important reminder that players can be tested at any time, in any place, and that refusal comes with significant risk.”

Many players came to Vondrousova’s support after the ban was announced. The likes of Coco Gauff, Sorana Cirstea, Paula Badosa, and Eva Lys expressed sympathy for the Czech and wished her to bounce back strong. This showed that many were against the long suspension that Vondrousova was handed, even though she never failed a doping test.

At the time of her suspension, Vondrousova had won three WTA titles, with her biggest achievement coming in the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, where she beat Ons Jabeur in the final. She also reached the finals of the 2019 French Open and the Tokyo Olympics, but came up short on both the occasions.