For the first time in more than three years — and for the first time since she served a doping ban — former top-20 tennis player Varvara Lepchenko played in a grand slam tournament, making it to the second round at the US Open when her opponent stopped playing because of illness.
Lepchenko is a 38-year-old American who is currently ranked 199th and earned a spot in the women’s singles bracket at Flushing Meadows by winning three matches in the qualifying event last week.
She hadn’t participated in the main draw at a major since the 2021 French Open; a couple of months later, Lepchenko tested positive for a banned stimulant, drawing a four-year provisional ban that later was reduced to 21 months.
“Enjoying my second life on tour. Or maybe my last life on tour,” she said with a laugh Tuesday night after Brenda Fruhvirtova retired from their match in the first set. “I was a bit nervous being back. But it just feels great.”
Lepchenko appealed her four-year punishment to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, saying she found in a travel bag capsules that were determined to contain the substance for which she tested positive — an ingredient not listed on the bottle’s label.
The reduced penalty expired in May 2023.
That was Lepchenko’s second doping case, but it was treated as though it were her first because she was ruled to be not at fault in the earlier case, which involved testing positive in 2016 for meldonium, the heart medication that led to Maria Sharapova’s doping ban.
AP/PTI
