Coco Gauff has addressed the four-year suspension of Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 Wimbledon champion, who was banned for refusing a doping test. The ban prevents Vondrousova from competing at Wimbledon this year and will keep her out of tennis until June 2030.
Details of the Ban
Marketa Vondrousova was charged by the Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after she allegedly denied a doping control officer entry to her house in December 2025. The Czech player claimed she refused on safety grounds and accused the officer of failing to follow proper protocol. The former world No. 6 has received support from several fellow professionals at SW19 this week.
Gauff's Comments
Speaking about the situation, Gauff said: "I mean, obviously I know the rules are the rules. It is tough to see someone you know who for sure is 100% clean - I think. Obviously, I don't know, but for track record and everything, 100% clean, respecting the sport."
She added: "Things are circumstantial. Me, I've had some weird testing incidents, had complaints to the testing agency about certain things. But I've never been to the point where I refused a test. That's never happened. I've been tried to have been tested outside my time slot before. Obviously the times that I have, that I make contact, I just take the test. What can you do? There has been times that they're there and I'm not there, but you're not obligated to take it if you're not there."
Gauff also shared a personal experience: "I'm not going to lie, some of them can be pushy, make you feel like you're doing something wrong. One time she came outside my time slot. But the way she was speaking to me on the phone, it literally made me cry afterwards. I found out I was in the right, and I didn't have to do anything."
She concluded: "I think it's a case-by-case type of situation. I obviously send all my love to Marketa. I mean, four years is pretty tough. I couldn't imagine being in the position she is in. I wish her all the best. Hopefully we can all learn from the situation."
Pegula's Reaction
Fellow American Jessica Pegula also voiced her support: "It's just really unfortunate. I feel like for Marketa, I don't know the ins and outs of exactly what happened, it seems like there's a lot of 'he said, she said' kind of things going on right now. But I just think for something like that, for four years, you're ruining someone's career over something that could have really just been a complete misunderstanding, and I just don't think that's fair. I think the sentencing is so harsh."
Pegula added: "You know, I don't know if she's going to appeal it with CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] or what's going on. I just think there has got to be a solution where we're not just totally destroying someone's career over something where she didn't even test positive."
