Fernando Verdasco accepted a two-month ban that will expire on January 8th following testing positive for a banned substance.
Verdasco, who has ADHD and takes medication for it, failed the test from an ATP Challenger tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earlier this year because he forgot to renew his Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for the medicine.
The ITIA recognized the circumstances of the situation and decided against the usual two-year penalty for Verdasco, opting for only a two-month one, as according to them, "his violation was inadvertent and unintentional" and also, the players "bears no significant fault or negligence."
"The ITIA accepts that the player did not intend to cheat, that his violation was inadvertent and unintentional, and that he bears No Significant Fault or Negligence for it."
"In the specific circumstances of this case, based on the player’s degree of fault the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme allows for the applicable period of ineligibility to be reduced from two years to two months."
As a result, the Spanish player, who rose to career-high seventh place, and played the Australian Open semifinal in 2009, will miss the first week of the season but will return in the second week of the season on January 8th.
It's a very unpleasant experience for Verdasco, especially in this stage of his career, as the 39-year-old doesn't compete on the highest level anymore, and mostly competes at ATP Challenger level.
A possible doping ban and a fine is probably the last thing that a player that played at Wimbledon quarterfinals, and twice in the US Open quarterfinal, needs.
This year, the Spaniard played 66 matches, out of which he managed to win 34, but already for the second straight season, he couldn't finish ranked in the Top 100, something that was the case every time since 2004.
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