Andrej Martin has received a 14-month ban from tennis following The International Tennis Integrity Agency's (ITA) inquest into allegations of doping.
The Slovakian player last played in the Trieste Challenger event in July 2022, but was then suspended as the ITA launched an investigation over possible doping. In June 2022, The Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) collected a sample from Martin at the Bratislava Open, which discovered a banned substance - the anabolic agent SARM S-22.
Following a ten-month investigation into the doping allegations, the ITA confirmed via a press release that Martin will be officially banned for 14 months. As a result, the player will not be able to compete at any ATP events and an independent Sport Resolutions panel reached the conclusion.
"The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has today confirmed that Slovak tennis player Andrej Martin has been banned for a period of 14 months following a breach of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP), as determined by an independent Sport Resolutions panel."
The ban will be a significant setback for Martin who has always denied doping allegations. Martin reached the ATP Top 100 in 2020 but tumbled down the rankings in subsequent years before the inquest began.
In addition, the ITA revealed further details about the independent investigation and stated that Martin's actions, although not completely deliberate, could not be fully excused.
"The player asserted that he had played in a floorball tournament between 3 and 6 June 2022 and that the presence of the substance was caused by mistakenly drinking from a teammate’s water bottle, identical in appearance to his own, during the floorball tournament."
"During the hearing, Martin’s floorball teammate admitted that he added ostarine drops (another name for SARM S-22) to his water bottle. The Independent Tribunal considered Martin’s statement to be plausible and ruled that the player acted with No Significant Fault or Negligence."
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