American tennis player Jenson Brooksby has been slapped with an 18-month ban after missing three drug tests in a 12-month window.

The ban was confirmed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency who released a statement on Wednesday.

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The 22-year-old from California, who reached a career high world ranking of 33rd in 2022, will be eligible to return to competition in January 2025.

The ITIA said Brooksby’s suspension was made official following a meeting on October 10 involving the player and witnesses including a doping control officer.

Brooksby admitted missing the first and third drug tests, but had challenged the validity of the second test he was judged to have missed.

He indicated he planned to appeal the suspension, vowing to “keep fighting” in a post on Instagram after his punishment was announced.

“I have never taken a banned substance in my life, and I was open and honest with the ITIA throughout my case,” Brooksby said.

“I accepted that two of my missed tests were my fault, but I continue to maintain that my June 4, 2022 missed test should be set aside.”

The American stated the missed test was all due to his mobile phone being on silent mode and the room being booked under his physio’s name.

Brooksby said the doping control officer had arrived at his hotel on June 4 to be told that he had not checked in.

“On that date, I was in my hotel room for the entirety of my 1-hour testing window. The hotel room had been booked for the first part of my stay in the name of my physio (who was staying with me), because the ATP did not provide me with a room until June 4,” he wrote.

“Starting on June 4, the room was in my name, but I had asked that my name be added to the room days before that.

“For some reason the hotel told the doping control officer that I had not yet checked in, but they did show him their computer screen which had my room number listed.

“The doping control officer never asked the hotel to call my room, so I did not know that he was there to test me – no call was made to my hotel room.

“The doping control officer only called my cell phone (which was on silent) in the last 4 minutes of the testing window (6:56am).

“Had he called my hotel room even once, I would have for sure been test, because I was awake and had nothing to hide.”

The tribunal however dismissed his arguments and imposed an 18-month sanction.

“Having considered the evidence, the tribunal found that Brooksby’s degree of fault for the missed test was high,” the ITIA said in a statement.

The panel said a doping control officer who attempted to carry out the second test had taken “all reasonable steps” to locate Brooksby at the time.

“The whereabouts programme is a vital tool in maintaining a clean sport and no-one wants players to fall foul of the rules in this way,” ITIA chief executive Karen Moorhouse said in a statement.

“We urge all players to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are meticulous with their whereabouts filings.”

– with AFP