LONDON, November 30, 2022 (ITIA Press Release)

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has confirmed that Fernando Verdasco, a 38-year-old tennis player from Spain, has accepted a charge under the 2022 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) for the presence of the ADHD medication, methylphenidate, in a urine sample. The player accepted a voluntary provisional suspension and will serve a period of ineligibility of two months.

Verdasco, who has an ATP career-high ranking of 7, was tested at an ATP Challenger event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in February 2022. The player admitted the Anti-Doping Rule Violation and explained that he had been medically diagnosed with ADHD and legitimately used methylphenidate as medication prescribed by his physician to treat the condition in accordance with a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE), but had forgotten to renew his TUE when it expired. Since the finding, there has been an ongoing TUE re-application process involving the player, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the ITIA. The player has been granted a new TUE by WADA for his medication moving forwards, and has withdrawn from the retroactive TUE process to resolve this case.

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 TADP allows for the applicable period of ineligibility to be reduced from two years to two months.

The player voluntarily accepted a provisional suspension after being notified of the charge. The two-month period of ineligibility commenced on the date of the player’s voluntary provisional suspension and will conclude on Sunday, 8 January 2023.